The End We Start From, 2023.
Directed by Mahalia Belo
Starring Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Marc Strong, Katherine Waterson, Gina McKee, Nina Sosanya and Benedict Cumberbatch.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman who along with her newborn try to find their way home as environmental crisis that submerges London in flood waters and sees a young family torn apart in the chaos.
“The End is Nigh” parables have been plentiful throughout the history of cinema, but now they are given an apocalyptic level of weight by the fact that you don’t need a portentous Charlton Heston voiceover to tell you the world is going to shit, you can look out of your window and on rolling news coverage and it’s happening right in front of your eyes.
Mahalia Belo’s adaptation of Megan Hunter’s novel immediately hones in on such prescience by having Jodie Comer’s late-stage pregnancy play out against the backdrop of rain-battered windows and a grey canvas sky. Surely it’s just a normal day in good old London town, right?
Wrong. This downfall is of biblical proportions, with Joel Fry jokingly offering up Noah as a name for their newborn son. Such joviality is soon washed away though, as the young family are forced to evacuate the capital and flee to higher ground, triggering a film-spanning journey of survival.
The problem facing Jodie Comer’s young mother is not the lack of food, or the strangers lurking in the shadows, it’s the fact that the apocalyptic path she is walking is so well-trodden, that all of her encounters have been done in previous end-of-times tales.
Admittedly the thought of being thrust into raising a child as the tide rises around you is a terrifying thought that the film captures brilliantly during the opening salvo, but your mind soon wanders to Children of Men, or A Quiet Place. On which, you want a safe commune situated on an island? Tick that one off from Krasinski’s sequel. How about a small car driving through the English countryside to escape the decimation of a city? Talk to Danny Boyle.
This isn’t to do down The End We Start From, its burgeoning sense of doom and overriding bleakness are effectively pulled off, it’s just that we’ve seen it all before, and much better.
There’s also no sense of time here, which can sometimes undermine the character’s struggle. Even on-screen ‘Day One’ titles would have added to the feeling that this has been an arduous journey for Comer, but the choppy narrative means that we have no idea how long it has been since her last meal, or the length of time it has taken for her to get from A to B. In that regards it really suffers from final season Game of Thrones syndrome. It also doesn’t help that Comer never looks like she has been dragged through the wringer, or even that she whiffs a little bit.
It’s a good thing then that she is the one taking us on this journey, because her turn is the film’s emotional anchor. It’s in the quieter moments that she excels, opting for silent anguish over histrionics, she’s utterly convincing as someone who’d risk everything for her family, even if the relationships at the core of the story never really peer below the surface.
Which brings us nicely onto Katherine Waterston, who arrives in time to act as the film’s buoyancy aid. Her performance feels real, as does her chemistry with Comer, so it’s a shame that the rather rushed nature of the narrative means she’s quickly sidelined, but not until she’s had a countryside croon to Dirty Dancing‘s ‘I’ve had the time of my life’.
Even though the story meanders and the weight of the climate-catastrophe is never fully realised, there are still some fleeting moments of tension to be found. Both involve unsettling encounters, which is a staple of this sub-genre (think Michael K. Williams in The Road, a film which makes this seem like a weekend trip to Butlins), and both are unnerving in the unfocused, minimal way they’re shot. Whatever the flaws of the film, it still remains a promising feature debut for Mahalia Belo.
Essentially 28 Waves Later, The End We Start From is kept afloat by Jodie Comer’s committed performance, but ebbs and flows on what is a disappointingly dull journey.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter
