Filmed in the style of 1920's silent films, writer/director Jonathan Rothell's "Silent Treatment" manages to silently pay tribute to both the early years of cinema and the magic of cinema over the years with the entertaining story of a bum (Don Hooper) who attempts to swipe the person of a pretty young girl (Michelle Loridans) only to become baffled when he thinks he's gone deaf.

The Girl assures The Bum that he's not gone deaf..."We're in a silent film," she says silently thanks to the retro stylings of a placard with the words pointed at the screen. The two performers go delightfully back-and-forth as the "silence" is at first obstacle and contributor to the desired purse snatching.

It's difficult to watch "Silent Treatment" without wondering if, at least subliminally, Rothell isn't sort of calling for a blending of the way movies used to be made with the wondrous technology of today that can, obviously, be both a positive and a negative depending upon how the filmmaker uses it.

Within the film's 6-minute running time, technology is gradually increased and, again, there are positives and negatives to the entire experience. Yet, what remains delightful throughout is the ways in which Hooper and Loridans play off each other with the energy, body language and over-expressive faces that were so common in Hollywood's early years of silent cinema.

Beautifully blending past and present, Jonathan Rothell's "Silent Treatment" is a joyous experience for moviegoers young and old.