GOOD DAUGHTER | Omeleto

A woman cons dementia patients.
GOOD DAUGHTER is used with permission from Rachel Annette Helson. Learn more at / rachelannettehelson .
Rebecca is a small-time con artist who targets elderly dementia patients living in nursing homes. She poses as their daughter, assuming elaborate identities to visit targets and steal money and valuables from their rooms. She then sells the goods to a pawn shop and diligently adds the money to her growing pile, saving money while still living modestly.
During one of these visits, her target passes away in her presence, rattling Rebecca into making some mistakes. The con may finally catch up to her, but a turning point takes it in a different direction.
Directed by Rachel Annette Helson from a script written by Jesse Harris, this unexpected Oscar-longlisted dramatic short captures the machinations of a con artist, just as her scheme begins to fall apart at the seams. The premise sounds like a straightforward character-based drama about someone "bad" getting their comeuppance. But as the storytelling unfurls, it reveals a subtle sense of humor and a more sophisticated narrative that upends our understanding of Rebecca and blurs the lines between right and wrong.
We first meet Rebecca with her "father" at his bedside, in a scene that fits a tender emotional family drama. But the storytelling quickly eschews that perception as Rebecca marches out into the parking lot, all pretense of being a dutiful, caring daughter thrown out the window. There's a humor underlying the sharp contrast, parsing the gap between Rebecca's caring demeanor and her seemingly callous moral compass.
In naturalistic, composed camerawork and cinematography, the film then takes some time to elaborate just how efficiently she goes about her deceptions. Rebecca goes from one home to another, visiting "parents" and taking advantage of their dementia to steal from them. Then she goes home to her drab living quarters, living in isolation and loneliness as she calculates her next day's scheme and figures out how much more cash she needs. The film has some "crime caper" moments as Rebecca goes about with her charade, but we're set up to see Rebecca as a morally dubious character and wonder how she'll get caught and brought to justice.
But when one of her targets dies in her presence, it's a pivot point for both the film and the character, discomfiting Rebecca and forcing her to confront what it means to sit at someone's bedside and be there at the end of their lives. The emotional ramifications hit her, and her careful control over her scheme falters. The con seems to be up, but ultimately not how Rebecca expects.
GOOD DAUGHTER reveals why Rebecca has been working such an elaborate con, and it's heartbreaking and deeply ironic, especially considering the build-up and the film's title. It also reveals how layered and nuanced lead actor Samantha Sloyan's performance is, serving the lighter moments of humor, the different characters she assumes during her con jobs and Rebecca's carefully concealed emotional reality. As it turns out, Rebecca's cons not only fooled her targets but perhaps kept a painful reality at bay. But that truth catches up to Rebecca, who is at the mercy of larger pressures -- and we're left wondering who's being taken advantage of in the end.