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BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (2019)
Director: Hannah Pearl Utt Cast: Hannah Pearl Utt, Jen Tullock, Judith Light, Oona Yaffe, Mandy Patinkin, Mike Colter, Alec Baldwin, Arica Himmel, Ayden Mayeri MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:38 Release Date: 8/30/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 29, 2019 On a fundamental level, Before You Know It is about two extremes of familial relationships. On one side, there's the tight-knit variety, which Rachel (Hannah Pearl Utt), who lives with her immediate family in a house connected to the family's theater, has known her entire life. On the other side, there's the absenteeism personified by Rachel's mother, whom she believed to be dead for almost three decades but actually is quite alive. In a way, both of these situations seem like a dream come true—to be so close to the people you love and to learn that a dead parent is still around. In reality, neither situation is ideal, to say the least, and Utt, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with co-star Jen Tullock, mines both sides of the dichotomy for this funny and touching comedy. At the start, Rachel lives with her sister Jackie (Tullock), her niece Dodge (Oona Yaffe), and the sisters' father Mel (Mandy Patinkin). They're a family of the theater through and through, with Mel as the talented but mostly unrecognized playwright, Jackie as the waiting-for-her-break actress, and Rachel as the humble stage manager, whose real talents have been overshadowed by her larger-than-life relatives. When Mel suddenly dies, the futures of his latest play and, indeed, the theater, not to mention the sisters' home, are put in jeopardy. The sisters also learn that their mother Sherrell (Judith Light), whom they believed to be dead but actually has been acting in a popular soap opera for a while, is the co-owner of the building. Jackie wants to meet her, but Rachel is hesitant. She doesn't know what the woman who abandoned them 28 years ago will do if she discovers that she's the sole owner of a struggling theater. This might sound like the stuff of a situational comedy, but Utt and Tullock's screenplay avoids such broad strokes. They would rather find the humor in these deep but frayed relationships, these flawed but decent characters, and how Rachel has difficulty genuinely communicating with the two women closest to her (in reality, in the case of Jackie, or theoretically, in the case of Sherrell) because of too much time together or two much time apart. For her, family is a constant gift and curse. Before You Know It recognizes that, but it also recognizes and, more importantly, embraces the contradictory natures of these characters. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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