effective almost abstract end of the world film
- The End We Start From review by AER
With strong female leads,THE END WE START FROM is loose-limbed like the book it's based upon. The crisis of the world in peril is seen sparingly and abruptly in the background and this makes the film more interesting than many of the pack of end of the world movies and TV shows doing the rounds. Strong performances make up for a simple and thin plot throughline. This more abstract and painterly than other films in the genre, yet I found it was all the more effective for it. There's food for thought here, but it needed to be louder and a bit more dramatic to be memorable and hit home more astutely with it's world in peril message.
5 out of 6 members found this review helpful.
Dull deluge
- The End We Start From review by cr
This is a modern film so we can expect, irritating music, characters without names, scenes filmed in the dark, characters doing things for illogical reasons for reasons unknown, characters staring at each other without saying anything, set at a snails pace and filmed in an abstract manner.
Some may like it but i found it slow and irritating. Its only 141 minutes long but i had to fast forward it.
Not recommended.
4 out of 6 members found this review helpful.
Talent flooded due to waterlogged script.
- The End We Start From review by RP
Great actors and a great story and um that's it. Not sure I ever believed any of the contrived moments that were supposed to pull emotions out of the deluge. Very disappointing when there was so much on offer.
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Realistic & Absorbing Survival Drama
- The End We Start From review by GI
A well grounded survival drama set in Britain as unprecedented rainfall floods London and forces a young mother on a quest for survival. This film is marked by two main things, firstly it doesn't focus on the bigger picture and so there's not huge expansive visuals of the land ruined under the disaster this narrative focuses on the human spirit for survival and it's chiefly about the characters; and secondly the central performance of Jodie Comer as the mother is nothing short of magnificent. The film's characters are mostly unnamed and we meet Comer's woman as she gives birth during the storm that begins an environmental crisis. With her loving and amiable partner played by Joel Fry they take their newborn son and head northwards to his parents (Mark Strong & Nina Sosanya) who live in the country. But as food supplies run short the inevitable threat starts from others intent on their own survival at any cost and there's the ever present tension as the family is torn apart and the woman is forced onto the road with her baby. Comer plays the main role as a smart, intelligent woman with the inevitable doubts caused by the frightening events she navigates through. She dominates the film and it's hard to fault her in any way here. There's a cracking support cast including Katherine Waterston who is another survivor and Benedict Cumberbatch (who is also a producer here). I admit I found the various flashback sequences to be distracting and I'm not sure of there benefit to the narrative but overall this is a fresh take on the post apocalyptic road/survival film and it's absorbing and realistic.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
A micro-budget film with excellent practical effects is let down by a meandering story
- The End We Start From review by Timmy B
Whilst watching this film, the main thought that kept coming into my head was how different it's impact would have been if it had been released before the COVID pandemic. Whilst there was in no way the scenes of violence which are depicted in the film, the sight of empty towns, massive queues for food & hospitals which are overwhelmed strike far more poignantly having been through a world pandemic.
But whilst there is strong imagery, brilliant use of minimal effects to convey the scenes of horror & carnage (the opening 15 minutes is absolutely genius in how it ratchets up the tension,) the film then becomes an exercise in often mundane padding, interspersed with some brilliant moments. Benedict Cumberbatch in particular has an incredible 10 minute part, giving not only a potted history of his character's previous life & despair, but also a terrible yet subtle warning of what awaits the women who he offers food & shelter to.
Whilst Jodie Comer is brilliant, as she always is, her performance is often let down by a script which doesn't seem to know what it wants to show. We have some extremely powerful & beautifully shot moments, such as Comer bathing in the sea & it being a striking metaphor for her cleansing herself of the past horrors before she looks towards the future for herself & her new baby, or when she is cooking on a mountain side & a magnificent bird of prey lands next to her, one of many biblical influences.
However, I still felt this was a missed opportunity. Unlike Children of Men, which really delved into the desperation of the population of the UK when society starts to crumble, this film simply is a passive observer without much to say for itself.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Nothing much happens
- The End We Start From review by MD
Uneventful and slow disaster movie. London is flooded. A young couple struggle to survive. The movie tries to be realistic, but it's just tiresome.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Meandering, female-focused, doomscrolling climate hysteria waterworld drama based on a novel
- The End We Start From review by PV
Hmmm well. I see this is largely funded by BBC film Lotter, FilmFour and of course as all they fund these days it has to tick the diversity boxes bigtime, re race or here, gender, with a female-focused film with a largely female writing/directing/producing team. So many #metoo movies like this have been made now, and most tank at the box office.
I looked up the novel which does seem female-interest, so if you like that sort of thing you'll like this more than me maybe.
I found it very long, meandering, silly and unbelievable. Think WATERWORLD. Reminded me of the Great Floods of 1707 no doubt caused by climate change too. LOL the very idea a few days of rain can sink a city is absurd. Flooding happens and always has, but not this. AND 2 words for the writers: THAMES BARRIER. Two more: DRAINS and SEWERS though there is no doubt with our swelling population esp in London the system is under pressure like never before - THAT is the issue. So in a way, this is another of those green propaganda lectures preaching doom re climate change...
I really like Joel Fry though he a bit wasted here as the focus is always on the women, including his often-irritatingly dizzy girlfriend and more.
If you like doomscrolling, watch THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS or maybe 28 DAYS LATER. Or Waterworld if you must - at least that had the budget.
This could and should perhaps have made a 45 minute radio drama, not a film - there is just not enough here to carry it. And the meagre special effects let it down badly. Watch The Day After Tomorrow for what it should be maybe.
SURVIVORS the 1975-8 TV series was also scary. This is not. It's just wet. Very wet. As wet as Cumberbatch's pointless cameo - really, if a scene does not move story of character forward, but it out, esp the unlikely coincidences in an unbelievable disaster movie. BUt do that here and you'd cut out half the film, literally.
2 stars. Just
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Why the music
- The End We Start From review by Ernie
This is a good well acted film, the story is a little thin but easily followed. However the music track which I assume is to build tension utterly failed to do so, in fact it detracted from the film. Overall it worth the time.
0 out of 1 members found this review helpful.