El final del que partimos

Like all the best disaster movies, The End We Start From understands that the most important aspect is making sure you care about the people who are trying to survive this possible apocalypse. Whilst it has its fair share of bleak moments, showing how quickly and violently civilisation can crumble, it's ultimately a hopeful disaster movie.

Jodie Comer is absolutely phenomenal in her finest cinematic showcase to date. She displays a whole range of emotions from the unbridled joy of having a child to the fear of never feeling truly safe in a constantly changing environment whilst having a really beautiful friendship with a super likeable Catherine Waterston. Her chemistry with Joel Fry is also endearing.

Mahalia Belo's direction can show the brutality of this changed world without wallowing in misery. The scale is pretty impressive, especially considering the low budget and it ends on a final shot that makes the whole thing coalesce. The score by Anna Meredith really stands out because it doesn't sound like anything else in the genre. It's so modern and understated.

Society is thrown into chaos after a natural disaster, a woman faces a huge challenge to keep her new born baby safe.

It's a film that's hard to hate, but virtually impossible to love, it promised so much, but offered relatively little.

It's a disaster story, but not a disaster movie, the focus is very much on the mother, and motherhood, we learn relatively noting about the disaster, it's just a talking point for that most part.

You can't argue with the acting, Jodie Comer and Joel Fry are both very good, but the script could have been a little sharper, and a bit more interesting, it's a little disjointed.

It's watchable, it has some interesting elements, but ultimately it was a little disappointing, and that ending, it reminded me of that hilarious ending from The Day after tomorrow.

Mehhh.

6/10.

I knew almost nothing about "The End We Start From" when I booked my ticket, no trailer, no poster even, it just worked out timewise so I took the plunge. Whilst the performances were pretty good, I'm less convinced of the point of the actual story.

A couple (Jodie Comer and Joel Fry) have a baby, just as the UK is in the early stages of an ecological crisis. Months of ongoing rainfall leave much of the country underwater and make the low-lying towns and cities uninhabitable. They travel north, to the home of the parents of Fry's character (Mark Strong and Nina Sosanya) but as the rain continues to fall, their supplies dwindle, and the population slowly begins to get desperate.

I'd say I appreciated the film, more than I actually liked it. It's dragged along by another virtuosa performance from Jodie Comer, who is in virtually every scene. She's ably supported by Fry though, who abandons his usual comedic turns for something altogether more haunted. The really strong supporting cast also include roles for Katherine Waterston, Gina McKee and a cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch. It's a very British version of this sort of story and the scenes of London devastation brought to mind "28 Days Later". You can tell how serious things are becoming when we won't form an orderly queue for emergency supplies.

I'm not really sure what it was in service of though. I feel like there must be a bigger theme that I'm missing, I suspect that it's perhaps loss and coping mechanisms, as we're told later in the film that Comer's characters parents recently passed away, and she's not really dealt with it. Generally, the story feels like a largely unconnected series of vignettes though and it was, for me, lacking some moment of ultimate revelation. I wonder if, in the book, it's easier to tie a connection between the commune's decision to abandon life as it was, in comparison to her decision to have a baby as way of dealing with her parents' death. Maybe I'm way off though.

So, lots to admire about this, but not a whole lot to love and I can't imagine that I'll ever see the need to watch it again.

Far better than the reviews suggest, this is a well made indie climate fiction road movie in a similar style to 28 Days Later and Children of Men. But unlike those two excellent films, this is a character driven and a more ambient experience. It still follows a linear plot and is not what I would describe as overly art house (think Terrence Mallick) but I can understand why it might be a little slow and non-immediate for some. But it is a beautifully shot movie with great performances and a standout turn by the excellent Jodie Comer, who displays believable strength and vulnerability in a story that steers clear of contrivance, cliche, and convenience.

A woman tries to find her way home with her newborn while an environmental crisis submerges London in floodwaters.

I think this film does not know what it wants to be. It's very pretentious, with lots of sombre scenes that don't mean anything, to a far-too-loud score that is overly dramatic, to interactions that don't really mean anything.

It hints at times of the breakdown of society, and the lack of Govt strategy to deal with the problem, and the stoical resolve some people show in getting back to normal. But they are inferred by me rather than implied by the film. I think if the film has a point then it is only one that was invented by the watcher to make sense of it.

The acting isn't too bad throughout but I don't think they really have much to work with. There's very little dialogue and much of what there is can be confusing. Interactions between people seem to be standalone murals which the director hopes look impressive but have no real connection to the story. There's also some very weak plot lines which seem to go nowhere and it feels as if they were just an idea that didn't last.

I watched it simply because Jody Comer put her name to it and I expected it to shine because of her but sadly, I think she picked a pig in a poke with this one.

It's not vile, it's not dire, it's simply not very good. The worst thing is it is tedious and monotonous including having to turn the volume down all the time for the silly soundtrack and then back up again for the dialogue.

It's not the worst film I've ever seen but I won't ever feel the need to watch it again.