The End We Start From (2023) Dir: Mahalia Belo

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Mahalia Belo's British survival film has been sat on my watchlist for some time, tempting me with its newborn mother in a post-apocalyptic landscape premise and its stacked British cast. It was only a matter of time before I got around to it, and get around to it I did, with a fair degree of eagerness. This looked like it could be another of those sneaky independent survival thrillers that quietly blow its viewers away. At least, that's what I was hoping for.

The film attempted to avoid any exposition dumps by having a lot of the information shared in the background of the film, either literally, or through background dialogue, which was creative, but also meant that, particularly considering the intentionally vague nature of much of it, it was actually quite hard to tell what was happening beyond a little flooding. The scale of it was hard to gauge, for the most part.

After a really intriguing and well-shot start, the film slumped into a slog of a first act, which I struggled to stay engaged with. I was beginning to get a bit worried, but thankfully the film recovered some of its momentum heading into the middle portion of the film. With that said, the pacing was never quite right, and the film definitely dragged its feet as it trudged through its story - it felt far longer than its one hundred minute runtime.

Elements of the story felt a little rushed, which, considering the film's sluggish pacing, was a little odd to witness. A lot of the events in the film were, in and of themselves, interesting, but the majority of them either had too much or too little time to unveil, making it a little dissatisfying to watch. The way the film presented the relationship, for example, made the protagonist's vivid visions of her lover feel strangely unearned and out of place. The best moments of the film were those away from the romantic aspect; two new mothers making their way through an uncertain environment in search of safety was extremely compelling.

Jodie Comer's lead performance, as I was almost certain it would be, was extremely good. She has such a talent for making her character's engaging and grounded in a way that some actors simply cannot do. I can't put any of the blame on Comer for the shortcomings of this film, because she was just immaculate. I adored Katherine Waterston even more so - she was such a delight. I genuinely haven't seen anyone produce such an effortlessly endearing and likable character in quite some time. Huge credit to her.

The rest of the supporting cast, headed up by Joel Fry, all provided some very commendable, if brief, performances - Fry being the only one who got any substantial screentime and dialogue. I liked his acting a reasonable amount, for what it's worth. In regards to the others, the most noteworthy performances came from Benedict Cumberbatch, Gina McKee, Mark Strong, and Nina Sosanya.

Overall, whilst this wasn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, it failed to live up to its own potential. I truly felt like it could have been so much better, but, unfortunately, it never quite capitalised on its intriguing premise, even in spite of a pair of brilliant performances from the two main women in the film. There were some legitimately very engrossing scenes, but poor pacing and a rushed emotional arc left me disappointed. I liked the film, but I should have been able to love it.