Release Date – 19th January 2024, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 42 minutes, Director – Mahalia Belo
When London is hit by a catastrophic flood a young mother (Jodie Comer) experiences the chaos of a country struggling to survive whilst she waits to return home.
The End We Start From is an environmental crisis film which focuses more on the human impact that the environmental crisis at hand. Jodie Comer is forced to flee both her home and city with her newborn child when London is hit by a catastrophic flood. Whilst trying to find shelter and safety in different locations she encounters both kindness and harshness in the reactions to the events which have hit the country. The different reactions of those who have access to dry land and food, and those who have been most affected by the events leads to frantic attacks and escapes equal to those of leaving London in the first place.
As Comer’s character, simply credited as Mother, tries to survive whilst waiting to return to her home, and hopefully reunite with her partner (Joel Fry), she finds herself frantically going to various different locations each with different attitudes to her situation, and that faced by the country. As we go from place to place the actual disaster which started all of this off fades into the background and almost seems to be forgotten. The reason for this chaos; the reason for emergency shelters and refuge being set up, the threat at hand, is somewhat left behind as the film goes from moment to moment as part of the narrative.
Particularly when cutting between times and locations as part of sequences the effect that was in place fades over time lessening the dramatic impact and scale of what is happening. Things eventually border on repetition as we go from one place to another, with panic and disorder largely being the points which spur the need to run away and go somewhere else. It means that the points to engage with also dwindle as things go on, occasionally treading familiar disaster-movie or post-apocalyptic tropes – especially during a campfire scene with Benedict Cumberbatch, who also acts as executive producer, as does Comer.
The cliché arises as the threat diminishes and in the end there’s not as much to connect or engage with as Comer’s character awaits news of when she can get back home with her baby. You watch as new groups in different locations pop up with their own ways of life, hope or signs of safety and reassurance before it all breaks down whether due to riots – at one point I questioned what happened to the military which literally surrounded the location a few minutes before – or turns in character. The familiarity does little to help the film and in the end it trudges through these puddles towards its ending with the environmental disaster still somewhere in the background. The threat being focused on may be human, but the natural one which sparks it all lies in the background with little thought or effect, diminishing the overall push of the film.
The End We Start From focuses on the human chaos in the wake of an environmental disaster, however the spark and initial threat is quickly moved on for to make way for a familiar set of events which never manage to properly engage or connect you with the characters or events.
Just A Little Bit Random 