Review: Adding Anne Frank doesn't deepen indie drama 'Love All You Have Left's' tragic tale

By Kimber Myers

June 28, 2018 1:19 PM PT

In the hands of an experienced filmmaker, the premise of “Love All You Have Left” would be a challenge to execute well. But this is writer-director Matt Sivertson’s first film, and he and his cast and crew are able to offer only a maudlin drama that inspires eye rolls rather than tears.

After the death of her young daughter, Juliette (Caroline Amiguet) struggles to regain her footing, refusing to engage with life. Left alone when her husband takes a job across the country, she finds a teenage girl (Sara Wolfkind) hiding in her attic who claims to be Anne Frank.

“Love All You Have Left” is working with a tiny budget, but the issue isn’t the lack of money; it’s the choices made by the filmmakers. William Wall’s cinematography is a particular curiosity, taking odd angles, shooting from ground-level or staging a two-shot from an inexplicably far distance.

In case a mother’s grief wasn’t enough to evoke emotion, Sivertson relies on the most famous story of the Holocaust for a clumsy narrative that’s at once simple and convoluted. Wooden delivery by the actors of Sivertson’s all-tell and no-show script doesn’t help in communicating the emotions they — and the audience — are supposed to feel in the face of tragedy.

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