The Case of the Missing Garden Gnome and Comedic Subtlety: A Short Film Review

*full disclosure: a screener was provided by director Alberto Belli.

Director: Alberto Belli.

Writer: Joe Swanson.

Cast: Rob Benedict, Marti Kass and Holly Fulger.


Noir is not just about black and white, desolation and the modern detective novel. Quite often, these films are about the isolation the weary P.I. faces and his outlook on life is often bleak. Sometimes, this individual simply needs a little spice in his life, or his funny bone tickled.

In The Case of the Missing Garden Gnome (CMGG), this genre gets a stylish update. It’s like watching an episode of "Magnum P.I." near the end of its run, when the production team and cast decided that they should have fun with conventions. Here, this short film project is a light-hearted look at the life of Seamus Biggs (Rob Benedict), a gumshoe looking for a case that will make his career. He has the choice of either a missing person or a garden gnome.

But only the gnome knows where both have gone. This fairy’s silent accord is to watch over gardens like a relentless soldier. But when Tim the Gnome goes missing in Francine’s (Holly Fulger) garden, Seamus is hot on the case, and cold on the fact he has to babysit his daughter, Jill (Marti Kass).

True to the noir genre, he prefers to work alone. And even more so true to the neo-noir style is the colour palette and set décor. Belli nicely creates a 50’s era vibe. But it also gets modern when there are tell tale signs of a computer and a newspaper bearing the date of 2010. The mixing of these two distinct eras is very intentional and smartly executed. This unique product hails to what this film’s producers know about the culture of the cold war era. And some of those social and racial sentimentalities are reflected by what the Gnome Liberation Front represent. Thankfully, the movie does not hammer audiences with ideology.

Instead, this film is more comedic and satirical in its delivery. The humor is sweetly offbeat in the situations Biggs gets himself into. Benedict shows off his comedic timing, and that has been a talent he’s honed since playing the character of Chuck Shurley, the novelist prophet, in CW’s "Supernatural."

Fulger, better known for her role as Robin Dulitski in ABC’s "Anything But Love," makes for a very intriguing femme fetale, but to say how she figures into the neo-noir semantics will be too telling. Even Kass, a newcomer, has an untapped potential that will only improve with more work.

For Belli, he has a undeniable talent for creating understated humour. Part of the style comes in his execution of the visual gags. The credit also goes to video editors Robert Hill and Chris Witt. Even writer Joe Swanson provides some cleaver scripting which makes Seamus a sentimental hero at the end.

With most of the original production team from “Zombo, the Musical” back to create CMGG, any rough spots they had in that previous workflow are smoothed out here. They are a very well oiled team that can stand to do more interesting products down the road. Hopefully that will include feature length films.

Overall: 8 out of 10.

The film's official webpage is here:

The Gnome Homepage

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Posted in: 2012,horror comedy short film review,italian,movie poster,movie review,neo noir,neo noir film review