Director Carlos Andre Stevens’s “The Alchemist’s Letter” is quite an accomplishment. It’s a fairy tale that also works as a cautionary tale about the ills of greed, and the dangers of over ambition. Would you trade memories and family for piles of gold? That’s what the alchemist asks his son when he leaves behind a letter that gives him a stern warning on what putting aspirations over the truly important things can do to a person.
John Hurt plays the Alchemist, a man who sacrificed everything in his life to create the perfect machine that could help him magically create gold. Through this process he left his wife and his son behind, and was thankfully not fully consumed. Through his son’s search for the same gold, the alchemist leaves behind a breathtaking warning that will hopefully reach his son. Filled with amazing 3D Animation, “The Alchemist’s Letter” isn’t subtle, but instead uses its Rube Goldberg like device to convey a story and a dire warning that the son could possibly learn from when given the gift of the alchemist’s machine. Is it worth leaving your family for riches?
Would you rather be a pauper with love in your life and unending memories, or a lonely individual with all the riches in the world? Truly the alchemist’s journey ended in an old man with nothing to show for his life of sacrifice, and he displays it through a glass vial and bottle that unveils a terrible story of abandonment, loss, and passing on the sins of the father to the son. It’s the tale of a father giving his son one last item, one truly valuable message not made of gold or silver. It’s something the son can really use that he will hopefully take with him home. “The Alchemist’s Letter” is a stunning picture, and a beautiful short film worth watching and re-watching if only for the message it conveys to its audience about not losing sight of the important things in the mission to achieve your greatest dreams.