Joey Magidson
Who doesn’t love ambition and a big swing? Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer‘s move from documentaries to narrative storytelling is nothing less than a big swing. An apocalyptic musical? In a bubble, sign me up. In practice, however? The End is a misfire, taking an intriguing premise and doing almost nothing with it. That the film is ultimately a slog is unforgivable, considering what might have been.
The End doesn’t lack for originality, obviously, but the movie is so doggedly stuck in neutral that it doesn’t take long for some degree of boredom to set in. You keep waiting for drama to become engaging or the music to become seductive. Either element could raise the other up if they were up to snuff. Unfortunately, neither is, and the end result is that they end up combining to drag the flick down into mediocrity.
Set 25 years after an environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, we head underground to a massive bunker. There, we meet Son (George MacKay), who has only known this life. He crafts intricate yet largely inaccurate historical dioramas, much to the enjoyment of Mother (Tilda Swinton) and Father (Michael Shannon). Son was born in the bunker, so he only knows the embellished tales of the before times from his parents. She tells him of her days in the ballet which may or may not be true, while he was an energy mogul with some degree of culpability in the end of the world. They live with a strict no outsiders policy, only sharing this world with their doctor (Lennie James), their butler (Tim McInnerny), their maid (Danielle Ryan), and an old family friend (Bronagh Gallagher). At least, that’s how it’s always been.
The arrival of a stranger in Girl (Moses Ingram) upends everything. Son is absolutely fascinated by a newcomer, leading Girl to be allowed to stay, despite Mother being very disturbed by her presence. Father encourages them to spend time together, which leads to tensions, especially as Son begins to question how much of what he knows is actually the truth.
Despite a strong cast, no one is able to really stand out. George MacKay and Moses Ingram have the most interesting characters to play, though the script never leans into them enough. Ingram and MacKay are good, yet stuck only getting to partly explore these roles. Tilda Swinton gets to be big at times, which is fun, though never in a way that feels satisfying. Michael Shannon is wasted, too, which is a real shame. Shannon and Swinton in anything together should be a highlight, so The End not achieving that is concerning. The supporting players in Bronagh Gallagher, Lennie James, Tim McInnerny, and Danielle Ryan are fine, yet none of them leave much of an impact.
Co-writer/director Joshua Oppenheimer makes his narrative debut in a fairly obtuse and even frustrating manner. The screenplay he penned with Rasmus Heisterberg never really embraces being a musical, instead making a melodrama that occasionally breaks out into song. Moreover, the songs are completely unmemorable. Now, they’re not bad tunes, but they feel like the extra songs added to a Broadway adaptation when they become movies, in that they just come off like also-rans. That puts the film at a disadvantage, which it never is able to overcome, especially since Oppenheimer’s direction is fairly simple. That’s a shame, too, given that his documentaries always felt so urgent and vibrant.
The End is a disappointment given the talent involved. That something even close to boredom sets in is a real shame. At just shy of two and a half hours, the film goes nowhere and goes there slowly. Before long, you’ll start getting frustrated and thinking about all the ways that things could have been done differently. I like that a movie such as this exists, without question. I just wish that the final product was better.
SCORE: ★★
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