Cindy Prascik's Review of Endings, Beginnings

Ahhh...dear reader(s)...two weeks in a row!

Beginning to feel like old times again, eh? To anyone new to my reviews, I apologize. It must seem like I don't like any movies. On the contrary, historically I've been a little too easy to please at the cinema, but...well...it feels like a very long time since I've seen a good movie. I am sorry to say the unlucky streak continues with Endings, Beginnings.

Spoiler level here will be mild, very little you wouldn't know from the trailers.

After a hasty decision leaves her jobless and homeless, a young woman attempts to get her life back on track.

Endings, Beginnings is a "finding yourself" movie. Kinda like Wild, but younger and with less pooping in the woods. Our heroine, Daphne (portrayed by Shailene Woodley), is the stereotypical screwed-up millennial, constantly attempting to rebound from poor life choices, with just enough visible ink and piercings to make your mom roll her eyes if she's watching this with you. (Spoiler Alert: Unless your mom is cool with people having sex on the kitchen counter, don't let her watch this with you.)

A problematic lead requires skilled handling.  With vile characters, it's up to the filmmakers to convey their loathsomeness without making a movie everyone hates. With troubled characters like Daphne, it's up to the filmmakers to earn them the viewer's support on their journey. While I think a person's tolerance for such troubled characters may reflect their own experiences (it's no fun having a Daphne in your life), this film doesn't do much to get you on her side, either. Woodley could play this role in her sleep, but lingering shots of her sobbing and staring out the window will hardly be the highlight of her sizzle reel. The traumatic event and subsequent decisions that leave Daphne where we find her at the beginning of the film — unemployed and living in her sister's pool house — are serious, yet the movie never quite distances them from what we're lead to believe is Daphne's history of pointlessly sketchy choices. We're meant to buy into Daphne's attempts at personal growth and redemption over the course of the film, yet (minus any spoilery specifics) the picture ends with her making an extremely selfish decision, weakly disguised as her finally having grown up. It's beyond offensive; it's repulsive.

Endings, Beginnings has a nice supporting cast, with Wendy Malik and Kyra Sedgwick in small roles as Daphne's mother and mother-like figure, and Jamie Dornan (using his real Irish accent... *swoon*) and Sebastian Stan as Daphne's potential suitors. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I think Sebastian Stan is the finest actor of his generation, and it's a shame he seldom gets a project that lets him flex more than the Winter Soldier's metal bicep. He turns in some nice work here, as does Dornan, but, really, the characters are paper dolls and there just isn't much to work with. (Broken Record II: Please check out the short-lived TV series Kings, available for streaming or download from all the usual places. Stan is magnificent in it.)

Petty annoyances: In addition to the many (MANY) overlong shots of Daphne crying herself to sleep and moping over her "suffering" Spotify playlist, Endings, Beginnings also repeatedly features dialogue overlapping the scene where it was spoken, but out of synch with the visual. I think it was supposed to be artistic. I've seen it work in other movies. Here it’s off just enough to look like someone messed up the editing. There's a New Year's Eve party with a "2019" balloon clearly visible in the background, but our hipster heroine is wearing a gold lame dress that looks like it barely escaped a 1986 prom with its life. Like the aforementioned Wild, which featured the abominable line, "I'm not even in the driver's seat of my own life!" Endings, Beginnins offers this nugget: "I don't think you understand who's next in line to be loved by you. It's YOU." (*shoots self in head*)  If you, dear reader(s), will forgive my bringing Woodley's Big Little Lies co-star Reese Witherspoon into play yet again, Endings, Beginnings is a little like a miserable version of This Means War.

Endings, Beginnings clocks in at 110 minutes and is unrated. In the absence of official MPAA guidelines, please be warned of graphic language, semi-graphic sex, alcohol and drug use, and pretty much non-stop smoking.

Endings, Beginnings offers solid evidence that sometimes people who try to "find themselves" should just stay lost. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Endings, Beginnings gets four.

Until next time...

(PS: I double-checked our web page, and the last good movie I saw was the Gentlemen on January 25th. Yikes.)

MOVIE REVIEW: THE POSSESSION

IN THEATERS ON DVD

THE POSSESSION



Inspired by Los Angeles Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "A Jinx in a Box," this horror film from Ghost House Pictures and director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) tells the tale of a broken family that comes under attack from a malevolent supernatural entity of Jewish folklore. Shortly after her parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) divorce, a young girl purchases an ornate antique box at a yard sale. In the weeks that follow, the young girl forms an intense fixation on the box, her behavior growing increasingly bizarre as she falls into the grip of a diabolical apparition. When the girl's father discovers that the relic is in fact a holding cell for the disconnected soul of a deceased person who has been denied entry into the afterlife and needs a human host to inhabit, he fights to rid her of the evil that threatens to consume her body and soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Ole Bornedal

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Davenport, Natasha Calis,

Release Date: Aug 31, 2012

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving violence and disturbing sequences

Runtime: 1 hr. 31 min.

Genres: Horror

Review:

The Possession is a fairly manageable retread of The Exorcist with a Jewish slant. Director Ole Bornedal delivers a well shot if sterile film that’s engaging enough to keep your attention. Its hits the same notes as The Exorcist but never really impresses. Bornedal’s over use of music kills what could be fairly solid sequences throughout, as if he doesn’t trust the audience to pay attention. It’s a shame because there are some decent set ups and moments. A pained Jeffery Dean Morgan does his best to carry the dramatic load throughout, doing yeoman’s work. He does the best he can with a clunky character that isn’t really given an organic feel. Madison Davenport turns in a solid performance as the possessed girl. Some of her work is annulled because of some shoddy CGI. It’s hard to imagine that the film as a whole would have worked better with more practical effects. Kyra Sedgwick is mostly relegated to the background and not really asked to do much. The film is watchable but hardly memorable since the characters and set up feel so familiar. That being said if you’ve seen Hellraiser, you should know not to mess with strange boxes.

C-