![]() Again, it seems obvious what happened there, and then it’s very much not. What actually unspooled with her previous two love interests (a term that becomes less suitable as the film winds on) isn’t played up as a mystery. These are problems that appear to have plagued Daphne’s entire adult life, and as she grapples with new feelings for both wild Frank and more solid Jack, she’s forced to remember - care of some woozy flashbacks - the last time this happened, with her brokenhearted ex (Matthew Gray Gubler) and the more forceful Jed (Ben Esler). While she’s made a weak promise to herself (and her older best pal, played by a very welcome Kyra Sedgwick) to abstain from bad stuff like men and drinking for the next few months, all the better to heal up whatever she’s just been through, she can’t ignore the connection she feels with both Jack and Frank. ![]() Despite - or, hell, maybe even because of - Daphne’s obvious heartbreak, neither of them can resist her. It’s clear that something horrible has happened to Daphne, but Doremus and Libaire skirt around the real issues (perhaps for too long to give them a true impact), instead leaning on what we do know: Daphne has nothing, and it seems to be of her own making.Īt a cheery New Year’s Eve party (endings! beginnings!), Daphne meets two (allegedly very different, but both the requisite level of movie-star handsome) new men: the rangy and sexy Frank (Sebastian Stan) and the more bookish Jack (Jamie Dornan). It does not appear to be the first time Daphne has gate-crashed her sister and brother-in-law’s happy existence, but “Endings, Beginnings” eventually makes the case that it might actually be the last. The film opens with a distraught Woodley arriving at said put-together sister’s (Lindsay Sloane) house without a place to live, without a job, and without a partner. Woodley is even strong enough to heave the film through some final-act revelations that teeter between the satisfying and the woefully unnecessary, stuff that hinges on bigger questions and issues than just “hey, growing up, it’s hard, right?” While Doremus (and his co-writer, first-time screenwriter Jardine Libaire) don’t stick the landing, there’s more foundational work being laid throughout the film than previously expected.įirst, however, there is a heartbroken Daphne. Where to Watch This Week’s New Movies, from ‘Asteroid City’ to ‘The Flash’ĭaphne shouldn’t be this captivating, but with Woodley’s vulnerability and full-scale charm backing her up, “Endings, Beginnings” is able to capitalize on a seemingly thin premise. ![]() Now armed with Woodley, a fitting muse for Doremus, who has not had a performer this suited for his material than his late “Like Crazy” star Anton Yelchin, the filmmaker has begun to move away from couple-centric stories into something more firmly focused on one enthralling character. ![]() But it’s all the other things that Daphne spends the film dabbling in - from living in her put-together sister’s guest house or looking for a job when she has no definable skills or even, as is often the crux of a Doremus feature, engaging in dangerous and immature relationships with unsuitable partners - that make it clear which parts of her are stuck in a life she should have stopped living a decade ago.īut is that ever going to change? Doremus’ films, from the sublime “Like Crazy” and “Breathe” to the ridiculous “Newness” and “Zoe,” have long tracked modern love to an obsessive (and typically unflattering) degree. Early in Drake Doremus’ “Endings, Beginnings,” leading lady Daphne ( Shailene Woodley) makes a comment to a potential paramour about feeling as if she’s being called to do things a twenty-something might do, like travel the world or join up with the Peace Corps, youthful diversions that a thirty-something like her has no business dabbling in anymore. ![]()
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