The Perfect Tomato: Review. By Robert Ewing

Life is not perfect. Every minute of every day, we do something that we wish we could have done better or wished we were in pursuit of our dreams rather than being stuck at a depressing 9 to 5. Sometimes, though, for us to achieve our goals, we have to make a sacrifice. You could view life like a Tomato plant; we try to achieve a goal like a tomato plant tries to grow a tomato, and sometimes we fail, and we must try again like a plant growing a misshaped or bad tomato but sometimes things go to plan, and we achieve our goals the plant has grown a perfect tomato. This thematic concept is at the core of The Perfect Tomato and leads to a short film that is simply great.

We open on Nacho (Eligio Meléndez) and his granddaughter María (María Fernanda Ayala) while they attend to tomato plants. Nachois a farmer and brought María to work; however, she is more interested in harvesting the tomatoes than taking care of them and letting them grow. After the day’s work is complete, Nacho and María head home, and Elena (María Meléndez), María’s mother, is working on her clay pottery. Over dinner, Elena gives the good news that an old friend wants to invest in her clay and open a store with her. However, this opportunity means Elena and María would have to move to the city.

The Perfect Tomato is a story about how we must care and let things grow in our lives, as the true prize for letting this happen is an amazing moment in our life. Elena struggles with this, thinking that nothing has ever gone right in her life and asking when that moment of happiness will come. Nacho deals with another aspect of achieving goals, which is sacrifice. Being pestered to take a management promotion, Macho wants to work the land as he has always given to the land, so the land gives back to them.

It has a meaningful message that is truly universal, and what allows the narrative to work is the strong performances. Eligio Meléndez and María Meléndez as Nacho and Elena respectively are wonderful. Delivering real and down-to-earth performances that are utterly spellbinding. 

The Perfect Tomato is a wonderful short that uses its entire 18-minute runtime to tell a meaningful message that is relatable with wonderful performances, and it is simply endearing.

4 Stars

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