THE END (2024) – Review

As people gather from different corners of the globe to reunite with their families during this holiday season, here comes a film about a family that’s never apart. That’s because they’re all, or nearly, the people left on the planet. For many that may sound like a horror movie, but this can’t be completely categorized as that (so no, it’s not another zombie takeover). As may be expected it is a fairly heavy drama, but it’s also…a musical. This year has seen many tune-filled tales of different styles. We’ll soon see a couple of “jukebox” biographies with BETTER MAN and A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. And the multiplex is still packed with fans of the Broadway-based WICKED. But this new film is closer in spirit to last month’s EMILIA PEREZ as it tackles an unusual subject to be set to music. After all, would you be bursting into song, let alone dance, as you face the very real prospect that this could be THE END?

The story begins deep underground in caves that seem to be part of a massive salt mine. Old cars and pieces of furniture are covered in white dust. Just past a pair of massive steel doors, we meet the family. Somehow they’ve made a cozy, mansion-style habitat, run by Mother (Tilda Swinton). She spends much of her time making sure the rooms are tidy and finding just the right spot for the paintings that would be in the collections of famed museums. Putting around nearby is Father (Michael Shannon), former CEO of an energy conglomerate. They’re also focused on their only sibling, the twenty-something Son (George MacKay). Aiding them is a small staff that has become members of the extended family. Mother’s longtime Friend (Bronagh Gallagher) is the housekeeper/chef. Butler AKA “Butterball” (Tim McInnerny) also helps with the cleaning while tending to Father. And making sure everyone is healthy is the Doctor (Lennie James). Aside from moving the art, most of the day is spent in preparedness. After some brisk lap swimming in their modest pool, Son must be tested in fire safety drills. That’s when he’s not in target practice, in case any of the survivors on the surface try to break in. We learn that a disastrous climate catastrophe set the globe afire a few decades ago. The monotony is finally broken as they patrol about the entrance and discover a young woman has broached the cave. The unconscious Girl (Moses Ingram) is cleaned and nursed back to health before she is to be returned to the surface. But after they hear her desperate pleas, the family has a change of heart. Maybe they can share their resources from their well-stocked greenhouse and aquariums. Plus the Girl is nearly the same age as the Son. Could they save the world by repopulating the planet? It all depends on whether the family can survive after her recent trauma reopens painful emotional wounds from their past.

The big draw for this quirky film might be its always quirky lead actress. Swinton dives into her considerable bag of acting skills to give us another dithering yet tragic eccentric. Mother desperately wants to hang on to the manners of society by being fixated on tidiness and the ongoing display patterns of the painting in a gallery no one else will ever see. It’s interesting that she’s paired with the often scary Shannon who makes Father a shambling, affable fellow (I see a bit of sitcom icon Ozzie Nelson, but due to his unique hairstyle and glasses I kept seeing my favorite cranky former late-night host). It’s not until Father is emotionally “poked” do we get a sense of his inner rage. Doing that poking is his Son who is editing his memoirs (for …someday), and MacKay displays great affection for both parents, though his wide-eyed expression hint at his surprise at being with the “ghosts of the past”. His joy alternates with his anxiety over being the person to “carry on’. But that exhuburance is re-ignited by the arrival of the Girl, who is given a skittish “lost soul” vibe by Ingram, as she treads lightly to fit in, while trying to process the guilt over leaving her own family. Of the “staff”, Gallagher as Friend gives us another haunted survivor who feels a devotion to Mother while also trying to “right the past” with her maternal bond with Son. McInnerny is a sad-faced subservient who’s also full of regret while trying to amuse the others at the expense of his dignity. And James is a nasty “hard case” who lives to “lash out” as a Doctor with the worst “bedside manner”.

In his first narrative feature film, director and co-writer (with Rasmus Heisterberg) Joshua Oppenheimer strives to give the story a dream-like quality, resembling a modern, really futuristic, fairy tale using tiles rather than names (Mother, Father, etc.). Ultimately this becomes repetitive after the Girl begins to settle and a courtship starts with her and Son. This is also when the musical “novelty’ begins to wear thin. Mind you, I was “gobsmacked” when the Son began warbling in the first five minutes of the film. And aside from sharing a very somber adult subject matter, this film suffers from the same malady as EMILIA PEREZ, namely the melodies. The songs are increasingly forgettable, many sound too similar, and the vocal styling of some of the actors is inconsistent, even grating. But unlike PEREZ, the cherography is mainly the actors jumping around the salt piles though Shannon and McInnerny share a simple soft shoe routine. After much melodramatic “hand-wring”, truths are revealed, and a new tragedy occurs which leads to an abrupt “fast forward” that doesn’t address any of the third-act bombasts. It’s an unusual and creative way to tell a survival story, but its turgid pacing and tepid tunes may have you anxious to see that title card indicating THE END.

2 Out of 4

THE END is now playing in select theatres