The End We Start From
The remarkable Jodie Comer excels yet again in Mahalia Belo’s striking post-apocalyptic drama.
Katherine Waterston and Jodie Comer
It's entirely understandable that many critics have already declared that Jodie Comer's performance in The End We Start From makes it a film not to be missed. But, while readily endorsing that praise for Comer and even though this piece is not without weaknesses, I would also declare that another key reason for seeing this film is to discover the special talent of its director, Mahalia Belo. Following work for television this is her first cinema feature.
Alice Birch’s screenplay is based on a novel by Megan Hunter which I have not read but what is on screen led me to compare The End We Start From with another British film that also originated as a novel, 2006’s Children of Men. The author there was P.D. James but instead of being a detective tale she created a work set in 2027 and one which, set in Britain, showed the world in violent chaos and with the very future of the human race in doubt. Although it could be regarded as a work of science-fiction, it seemed to comment on the already existing threat posed by the follies of mankind such as the pollution of the environment. Especially in book form Children of Men also brought in religious and philosophical elements that clearly mattered to P.D. James. The End We Start From is filmmaking on a smaller scale and does not claim to be set in the future, but it is in many ways similar. It starts off in London and then goes on to show Britain in crisis. Here it’s due to flooding that is making cities uninhabitable and leading to anarchy. The precise cause of this disaster is never discussed but parallels with the growing consequences of climate change certainly come to mind. Both works involve the central characters taking to the road and if one felt that P. D. James was turning the science-fiction genre to her own ends much the same can be said of The End We Start From. Despite the dramatic setting, this does not play as an action movie but as something much more intimate and personal.
The tone of the film is established at the outset as we meet the central character, a mother-to-be. This is the role played by Jodie Comer and, like the other characters with the sole exception of her baby, they remain unnamed. The opening scenes show the expectant mother at home and then taken by ambulance to the hospital where she gives birth and all this occurs just when excessive rain is building up and the crisis conditions are becoming clear. In most cases such material would be handled in big dramatic strokes and probably with a loud contribution from the music score. Belo’s approach lacks nothing in impact but plays everything down so that what is happening to Comer comes across as the kind of alarming emergency that can happen in real life.
That remains the essential mode of the film regardless of the dramatic events that occur after the mother and baby are driven by her partner (Joel Fry) to the country home of his parents as a place of greater safety. But quite quickly another feature emerges that is key to the character of this unusual work. For this, Comer is ideal. The actress has earned exceptional praise for her stage and television work and here in her first leading film role she has a part that allows her to make full use of her exceedingly expressive face, the eyes above all. Once the baby is born it immediately becomes clear that this is a film about the bond that a mother has with her child and the strength that it gives her. Established early on, the theme is carried through and not only with this mother and her son but with another mother (Katherine Waterston) encountered along with her baby daughter in a shelter. The End We Start From is filmed in wide screen but never lacks in intimacy and includes on occasion a shot of a baby in huge, captivating close-up. Capturing the emotion of such scenes and encouraging so much natural feeling from Comer, Waterston and Fry is evidence that Belo is not just a talented director but has something personal to bring to the table. Plaudits too to Anna Meredith for her admirably judged music score so well suited to the character of the film.
The best things in The End We Start From are so special that one regrets having to point to some problems in it too. It becomes in a sense a road movie (that was also the case with Children of Men) but the transition from one episode to another on the journey north is sometimes rather abrupt and might benefit from further amplification. It’s also a film in which such players as Mark Strong and Gina McKee seem underused (one feels that less strongly when it comes to Benedict Cumberbatch because he is simply combining an on-screen cameo with his involvement as one of a number of executive producers). Relatively late on a number of flashbacks are incorporated but, even if they count as memory shots, the style adopted for them makes then feel divorced from the rest of the film. However, the most significant weakness is the final travel sequence which largely features mother and baby alone. Comer’s skills ensure that we care about their ultimate fate, but too little happens in this last stretch and the conclusion is the most conventional scene in an admirably unconventional film.
Those points made, I can't emphasise too strongly that if you want to see some great acting and to recognise what makes Mahalia Belo stand out from other directors of her generation you should not hesitate to seek out The End We Start From.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Katherine Waterston, Gina McKee, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Nina Sosanya, Alexandria Riley, Jo Wheatley.
Dir Mahalia Belo, Pro Adam Ackland, Leah Clarke, Liza Marshall, Amy Jackson and Sophie Hunter, Screenplay Alice Birch, from the novel by Megan Hunter, Ph Suzie Lavelle, Pro Des Laura Ellis Cricks, Ed Arttu Salmi, Music Anna Meredith, Costumes PC Williams.
Hera Pictures/SunnyMarch/Anton/BBC Film/C2 Motion Picture Group/BFI-Signature Entertainment.
102 mins. UK. 2023. US Rel: 8 December 2023. UK Rel: 19 January 2024. Cert. 15