'Endings, Beginnings' Review: Shailene Woodley dazzles in an exploration of love couched in a story of romance
Beginning at the end of a relationship, 'Endings, Beginnings' is the story of a woman caught between lives; the life she has led so far and the one she may lead in the future. A smart, innovative and semi-improvised movie with plenty of subtle nuances, the film follows one woman's exploration of love, misery and her own sense of identity.
With 'Endings, Beginnings', Drake Doremus has crafted something that's as much a study of the human condition as it is a tale of romance. Shailene Woodley puts up a powerful performance as Daphne, a woman who has lost her faith in long-term love and yet finds herself caught in a love triangle.
Sebastian Stan and Jamie Dornan, who play Frank and Jack respectively, perform their roles to perfection, though the roles themselves serve more as archetypes than individual characters. Woodley is the star of this story and there's an almost fable-like feel to the drama that unfolds.
In the past, Woodley has acted in plenty of romantic stories including the acclaimed adaptation of John Green's novel 'The Fault in Our Stars'. But she has clearly matured as an actor and that is evident in her portrayal of Daphne, a woman who is far more complicated than the protagonist of a young adult book.
To call 'Endings, Beginnings' a romance drama would be a gross simplification. There's a lot more to this story than the surface-level drama of a woman caught between two men and in the end, the question Daphne faces is not about loving Frank or Jack but loving herself.
If we had to pick between the two male leads, we would have to say Sebastian Stan is the one with the most remarkable performance. His character is the classic bad boy archetype and yet Stan manages to bring some nuance to the table that adds a certain depth to a character who would otherwise have been just a repetition of a tried and tired trope.
The movie takes its sweet time, moving from beat to beat at a languid pace. More than a story, it's a mood, one that's probably best enjoyed on a rainy evening when the world seems to fade away and the players take the stage to tell a story that seeps into your mind as slowly as water into the earth.
Here's the synopsis for the movie from the website for the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere: "Reeling from a bad recent break-up, Daphne (Shailene Woodley) finds herself adrift in life. Living in her sister's guesthouse, she regularly witnesses her sibling and her brother-in-law fighting, which only exacerbates the once-idealistic Daphne's growing despair regarding long-term love."
"Then, at one of her sister's parties, Daphne meets Frank (Sebastian Stan) and Jack (Jamie Dornan). Both are enormously attractive to her, albeit in very different ways: one is the free-spirited bad boy, unpredictable, and always ready for adventure; the other is sober, intelligent, sensitive, and invested in his career as an academic. Unable to choose between these almost polar opposites, Daphne finds herself bouncing between them instead, enjoying the distinct ways each man sees her — it's as though she's auditioning different versions of herself and the life that might be waiting for her. But fate has a way of making decisions for us, and the time soon comes when Daphne is forced to accept that having it all might just be a disguise for having nothing."
'Endings, Beginnings' was originally scheduled to be released on May 1, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the movie has instead been given a digital release on Video-On-Demand on April 17. You can watch the movie on AppleTV here.