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The End We Start From felt like we were going to get beaten over the head with ‘climate change’ propaganda, telling us that big storms are happening because someone in your street bought a ‘gas guzzler’ vehicle.
In practice, it’s not that offensive.
What we do have – and I’ll just list the actors’ names, because the characters are literally “Woman”, for our lead, or R, AB and “Man in suit”, which is annoying.
The film opens with Jodie Comer (Help) extremely pregnant as the rain hits, causing the power to go off. As the baby makes its debut appearance, there’s water all over the place, and not just from her foo-foo. Cue her and boyfriend Joel Fry (who also starred in the engaging, doom-mongering comedy drama You, Me and the Apocalypse) walking through deep puddles – oddly, instead of the adjacent areas of pavement which are almost bone dry(!)
With the flat trashed, the only option appears to be to move into his parents’ house (Nina Sosanya and Mark Strong), but along with awkward encounters with various strangers along the way – the details of which I don’t want to spoil, circumstances happen which result in Jodie and Joel feeling like it’s the end of the world, so a trip to a shelter is in the offing, because resources are scarce, along with a commune being considered which is run by Gina McKee (Bodyguard), and in which one of the residents – also with a young baby – is Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore). That said, I certainly couldn’t abandon my own home whatever happened!
The problem with The End We Start From is that as London turns into Venice, you just don’t get a sense of the scale of panic or disaster; and when there’s scenes of Jodie and one other character walking through empty landscapes, it’s as if everyone else just didn’t bother heading out for a walk that day. Try Threads for a sense of calamity!
As a result, The End We Start From feels less like a film, but more like an episode from a mediocre series.
However, at one point, Jodie does chance upon Benedict Cumberbatch (Spider-Man: No Way Home More Fun Stuff Version). And who doesn’t love a bit of BenCum?
The End We Start From is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, you can currently buy the novel in Audiobook, Paperback and Kindle formats.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 106 minutes
Release date: January 19th 2023
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Mahalia Belo
Producers: Adam Ackland, Leah Clarke, Sophie Hunter, Amy Jackson, Liza Marshall
Screenplay: Alice Birch
Novel: Megan Hunter
Music: Anna Meredith
Cast:
Woman: Jodie Comer
R: Joel Fry
AB: Benedict Cumberbatch
U: Jake Davies
Commune leader: Gina McKee
P: Alexandria Riley
R’s mother: Nina Sosanya
R’s father: Mark Strong
O: Katherine Waterston
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.