Liv Thomson

Jodie Comer stuns in a haunting depiction of motherhood in the midst of an environmental disaster in new film The End We Start From.

Warning: potential spoilers ahead

Setting the Scene

The End We Start From has been broadcast to audiences around the UK, as part of the BFI London Film Festival. Much to my delight, I managed to secure a booking for a showing at the Glasgow Film Theatre last Saturday.

Based on Megan Hunter’s novel of the same name, the film follows its central character – simply called ‘Woman’ – as she gives birth at the onset of a major flooding event in London. The consequences of this disaster drive her out of the city on a journey through motherhood, trauma, and the harsh elements of both nature and humanity.

“It is an examination of human endeavour and decency – what drives our decisions, and how will our morals be challenged by unspeakable hardship?”

Jodie Comer, fresh off her Tony-award-winning performance of Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie on Broadway, stars as Woman. Other members of the cast include Joel Fry (Game of Thrones), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes).

The film, overall, is scenic and thought-provoking. It has a notably different feel to most apocalypse movies, but this only makes it more charming. While there are some truly chaotic scenes, most typical of a survival-apocalypse drama, the film’s overarching theme is motherhood. It is an examination of human endeavour and decency, questioning: what drives our decisions, and how will our morals be challenged by unspeakable hardship?

Belo’s Directorial Debut

The End We Start From is Mahalia Belo’s directorial debut, making it an even more impressive feat. Her clever use of water imagery adds style and flourish, making the ordinary extraordinary. Water rises and falls throughout; the camera takes us underwater and also shows us the horizon when it’s calm. All of these shots serve as emulations of Woman’s experiences and emotions in the scenes they’re attached to.

A defining feature of this film is its lack of character names. This may seem odd, but actually, it adds to the nuance. The only ones with names are the babies – perhaps to highlight how they are the centres of their mother’s world, the only ones worthy of names.

Love is another key theme that Belo portrays well. The love between Woman and her partner (Fry) is tangible. This is evident in their scenes together, as well as in flashbacks of their first meeting and happier times.

Belo also expertly conveys the film’s most harrowing elements. The struggles of being a new mother combined with the unprecedented impact of being ousted from your home and your city, separated from your loved ones, not knowing if it’s safe to sleep surrounded by strangers. There is, in particular, one genius shot of Woman the wrong way up as she has her first contraction. It seems that this is the starting point of her world turning upside down. Similarly, in a back-and-forth montage, Woman’s baby is born, as her home (along with the world she knew) is destroyed.

The Star(s) of the Show

Alongside Comer, Waterston’s character delivers some of the film’s funniest lines, as well as some of the most heartbreaking. Her ability to undercut serious conversations with her brand of satirical humour is a breath of fresh air, and just what Woman needs. Her friendship with Woman becomes central for much of the movie, as the women bond over their newfound respective motherhoods. Their children grow together over the months, and the women’s relationship is a poignant reminder that trust, friendship, and love still exist in this underwater world.

“The film serves to consolidate Comer’s place as an A-lister within the industry…”

The film has some truly powerful performances from Waterston and Cumberbatch, but it’s Comer who is the standout. Her command of the screen is masterful, elevating a simple, intimate concept, to an actor’s playground. The expressiveness of her face says it all. She plays dissociation, shock, anger, and pain, as well as joy and relief. She embodies the terrified, unmoored mother that Woman is, able to effortlessly portray the unbelievable stress of keeping a newborn healthy and safe in a world gone mad.

Comer is an indomitable talent and a force to be reckoned with. The film serves to consolidate Comer’s place as an A-lister within the industry and is likely to land the Liverpudlian her first Oscar nomination. 

Final Thoughts

Alongside motherhood and love, the film is a message of unending hope. Woman retains her hope throughout, despite everything. She finds rare moments of joy, all the while maintaining her resolve to get back home again. Her quiet determination is awe-inspiring, and almost poignant in the happy moments she spends singing and dancing with her new friends.

“She is teaching him honesty, vulnerability, and hope.”

Woman is unmoored for much of the film – ripped from one place, staggering to the next, never quite sure where she is. It’s something she openly asks baby Zeb – “Where am I?”. It’s a game of hide and seek, but eventually serves as her breakthrough moment. This is the first time she allows herself to cry properly, and admits to her son that “Mummy doesn’t know where she is”. It’s heartbreaking and endearing, but also affirming. She is teaching him honesty, vulnerability, and hope. She doesn’t know where she is, yet, but she will.

While perhaps not the stand-out of the BFI London Film Festival, this film is powerfully perfect in its simplicity. With hope, love, and family, Woman can find herself, and rebuild, and that is the end she can start from.

The End We Start From releases in cinemas across the UK on January 24, 2024.

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Featured image courtesy of Liv Thomson.  No changes were made to this image.

Just another argumentative antithetical dream girl trying her best to make her sentences pretty. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and is currently pursuing a Master's in broadcast journalism.

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