Before You Know It (2019) 1091 Media/Comedy-Drama RT: 98 minutes No MPAA rating (thematic elements, language) Director: Hannah Pearl Utt Screenplay: Jen Tullock and Hannah Pearl Utt Music: Ryan Tullock Cinematography: Jon Keng Release date: September 6, 2019 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Hannah Pearl Utt, Jen Tullock, Judith Light, Oona Yaffe, Mike Colter, Mandy Patinkin, Alec Baldwin, Arica Himmel, Peter Jacobson, Blake Berris, Ben Belcher, Tim Daly, Jenn Lyon, Linda Arroz. Box Office: $151,459 (US)
Rating: ** ½
With a title as generic as Before You Know It, it’s only natural to assume that the movie bearing said title will be completely ordinary. Despite the eccentric behaviors of the principal characters, the film isn’t all that different from other comedic movies centered on troubled families trying to get through something together. At the same time, the writing-directing team of stars Hannah Pearl Utt and Jen Tullock bring a little something extra to this amusing comedy-drama about a family that isn’t exactly dysfunctional but won’t win any Family of the Year awards any time soon.
Utt and Tullock play sisters Rachel and Jackie, both in their 30s and still living with their father Mel (Patinkin, Homeland) in the brownstone over the small Greenwich Village theater they own. You’re not likely to find two siblings with personalities more opposite than this pair. Younger sister Rachel, the stage manager, is the more grounded of the two. She’s the one who takes care of everybody and everything. Her familial obligations prevent her from having a life of her own. Actress Jackie, on the other hand, is a flake. Brash and completely without boundaries, she drinks too much and tries to hook up with men of the Mr. Wrong variety. As mother to an extremely angsty preteen, Dodge (Yaffe), she’s either totally unreliable or way too much, there is no in-between for her. Mel, an actor-turned-playwright planning to stage his own work, is like a child. He has this larger than life personality that overwhelms everybody and everything around him. He’s at once petulant and arrogant as expressed by the disrespectful acceptance speech that costs him a chance to stage his new play at a larger venue. He’s a frustrating individual. The relationship between Mel and his daughter is a study in co-dependency.
Things change dramatically when Mel dies suddenly. Before the shock has a chance to wear off, Rachel and Jackie receive the more shocking news that the mother they were told was dead is alive and well and starring in a popular soap opera. She is Sherrell (Light, Who’s the Boss?), an aging diva struggling to hold on to stardom. Jackie wants to go meet her; Rachel thinks it’s a bad idea. Jackie goes to the studio and crashes a taping to announce that Sherrell is her mother. Rachel stands there mortified and speechless. The thing is that Sherrell is co-owner of the theater and they’ll need to get in her good graces if they don’t want her to sell it out from under them.
One of the problems with Before You Know It is that there are too many subplots, some of which go nowhere. Alec Baldwin appears in a couple of scenes as a therapist who sees Dodge as a client and Jackie as a lover. His involvement with the story feels completely superfluous. The same applies to the accountant, Charles (Colter, Luke Cage), who helps the girls straighten out the family finances after Mel’s death. It seems like his wife’s death being the cause of communication issues with his teen daughter Olivia (Himmel), who becomes close friends with friendless Dodge, will be a major plot point but it’s dropped long before it’s even close to resolved. Some business about Sherrell being in danger of being written off her show is handled in a perfunctory manner. Director Utt misses a golden opportunity to explore ageism as it pertains to women in the entertainment industry.
The highlight of Before You Know It is the acting especially as it pertains to character dynamics. Given the formulaic nature of the narrative, I became more focused on observing how the characters interacted with one another. Take Rachel and Jackie. Rachel always has to look out for her flighty, irresponsible older sister. Jackie thinks Rachel needs to lighten up. At one point, she kids Rachel for dressing like a “Mennonite caterer”. Although Jackie confounds, exasperates and exhausts serious-minded Rachel, there is clearly sisterly love between the two. At the tender age of 12, Dodge can’t even find the words to talk to her mother about her irresponsible behavior and how it’s affecting her. For her part, Jackie doesn’t see anything wrong until she starts to get to know her long-absent mother and sees the preferential treatment she affords Rachel. The film’s most powerful scene is when Sherrell breaks down while explaining why she left and never tried to be part of their lives. At once, we see her raging narcissism and frail vulnerability. Light’s performance is brilliant. Really, the whole cast does a great job with their performances. Utt and Tullock, longtime writing partners making their feature film debut, have amazing chemistry. In her first acting role, Yaffe shows great potential.
The humor in Before You Know It is more verbal than situational. What I mean is the dialogue is funnier than most of the situations. The movie’s take on working on a soap opera has a parody-like feel a la Soapdish that feels out of place here. Jackie’s run-in with a security guard in the TV studio parking lot feels like something out of a sitcom as does Rachel being mistaken for an auditioning actress. Before You Know It is markedly uneven in this respect. However, it does benefit from production design (by Katie Hickman) that perfectly conveys the characters’ sense of claustrophobia in being stuck in a living situation from which there is no exit.
I can’t say I’m wild about Before You Know It but I don’t dislike it either. It’s a movie in need of work. The script lacks plot development. It’s a case of too much plot, too little development. Some of the characters can be a bit much but I suspect we all know people like that in real life. If nothing else, Before You Know It is an interesting near-miss. It shows real potential on the part of Utt and Tullock. They’re good but not quite there yet.
