Starring: Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan, Sebastien Stan, Matthew Gray Gubler, Lindsay Sloane, Wendy Malick, Kyra Sedgwick
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 110 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2020
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Every audience can identify with this title, many endings in our lives, many beginnings. However, the reference here is particularly to young adults, especially those in their late 20s, early 30s, the age of the main protagonists.
This is a film by Drake Doremus who has made a succession of films exploring relationships between younger people.
The focus is on Daphne, played by Shailene Woodley, who built a strong reputation for performance during her 20s, including The Descendants, the Insurgent series, Big Little Lies. She is involved in a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, decides to take something of a sabbatical, moves in with her half-sister, tries to get some jobs, wants to sort herself out.
Daphne reflects on her past, her beginnings, the absence of her father, her mother caring for her but many relationships with men. By contrast, her half-sister is pregnant, relates well with her husband – although Daphne sees them often quarrelling. The issue is whether she will drift or, as the title indicates, will find some beginnings.
The key to her search is, of course, in relationships. She has flashbacks to her past boyfriend. She has given up drinking. (Although, it is extraordinary how many cigarettes she and the cast smoke during the film – with some comment by her on what the Surgeon General might think.)
At a party, she encounters two men, Jack (Jamie Dornan keeping his Irish accent) and Frank (Sebastien Stan). Interestingly, the two could pass for brothers, same height, general appearance and build, both bearded. She is attracted to Jack, a serious-minded writer with prospects for advancement, time in Italy, researcher. The audience might be more puzzled by her attraction to Frank, very outgoing, not particularly inhibited or scrupulous in his behaviour.
The audience watches Daphne letting herself go in a sexual relationship with Frank. She is more controlled, even more tender, in her sexual relationship with Jack. In the meantime, she is getting advice from her half-sister, from friends who work in the art world where she did, from her mother.
But, for a young woman entering her 30s, the principal beginning is pregnancy, the desire to have a child, but with the problem to be solved about communicating to both Jack and Frank about the pregnancy as well as the paternity issues.
Since the title begins with endings and ends with beginnings, the screenplay, of course, will leave the audience standing with Daphne, contemplating this particular beginning for a life and what she will do.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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