People often wonder what affects others perception of each other. Rob Pearlstein’s short film “Our Time is Up” demonstrates that when people focus on how others perceive them, they don’t act freely which ends up diminishing the perception of others. This is illustrated through the characterization of Dr. Leonard Stern, a psychiatrist who learns that he has six weeks to live.
Through the initial characterization of Dr. Stern we learn that whenever people worry about how others perceive them they attempt to reach a state of perfection. This is shown when the gardener informs him of the new plants but the Doctor refuses to engage with the gardener. Doctor Stern’s interaction is used to show how professionalism and this idea of perfection is very…show more content… Stern shows that when someone is able to act freely others perception of them will improve. In the beginning of the film the guy who is afraid of the dark asks whether therapy will work and receives an “all in due time” he is not happy. Through this we can infer that Dr. Stern says this a lot and that the patients in the beginning do not have a good perception of him, but at the end of the film they all appreciate the Doctor and have a very good perception of him. This is shown in the scenes where the patients are sincerely thanking him. The biggest example of this is when the playboy comes back to Dr. Stern’s house after leaving in a huff and thanks him for speaking truthfully. This example not only shows us that his impression of Dr. Stern is good at the end but also that it wasn’t great before this is the biggest example because it takes no inference and can be plainly seen. These examples clearly show that when acting the way you want does make others see you better.
This film showed that when people only worrying about how others see them it leads to others seeing them poorly, but when people act freely other perceive them as better. This is demonstrated by the many examples of Dr. Stern’s perfect professional life, and his transition into acting as he
