OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Out for Delivery tackles the somber subject matter of medically assisted suicide with dry, tongue-in-cheek humor that cleverly installs a dire life ending situation into the everyday, mundane occurrence of a wayward package.

Deanna Rooney plays terminally Ill Joanna who just found out she only has a couple months left to live. With her final days destined to be agonizing, she elects to take prescribed anti-medication as part of a ‘die with dignity’ initiative to accelerate her death. Rooney’s portrayal of Joanna is bittersweet, as even during her final hours, she manages to see the humor of the situation that unfolds as her package is mysteriously delayed and then misdelivered. She manages to successfully juggle the delivery company customer service while simultaneously scheduling her own body pickup with a similar demeanor and tone someone would use to order a pepperoni pizza.

As Joanna struggles to make her final arrangements go smoothly, the world around her moves along stagnantly, ‘business as usual.’ She schedules a funeral home to pick her body up at 4 PM, but because of the package delay she is still alive when Mark (Martin Starr) from the local funeral home arrives to load her body onto a gurney and into this van. Mark reluctantly agrees to wait 5 minutes for Joanna to take her pills and wait for her to perish, but much to both of their chagrin the process takes much longer than anticipated.  Joanna and Mark form an unlikely bond, as they discuss losing people they care about and how their worlds and perspectives have changed as a result. They have a surprisingly natural rapport and candor for two people who were never supposed to meet while still breathing.

Out for Delivery is a short film that is as short lived as its gravely sick protagonist, which leaves the audience feeling short-changed but in an unusually positive light. The time spent with the characters is limited, but rich in subtle character development that effectively draws the audience into a deep conversation among two strangers and leaves them wanting more.