The first narrative feature directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, who has been praised and celebrated for two confrontational documentaries that he helmed over a decade ago (The Act Of Killing and The Look Of Silence), The End is a strange and unsatisfying experience that has made me sure of only one thing: I will finally watch those aforementioned documentaries before I will rush to watch any other standard feature films from Oppenheimer.
A family live alone in a shelter that has allowed them to stay safe in a post-apocalyptic world. They are simply identified as Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon), and Son (George MacKay). A few others are staying with them. They are Friend (Bronagh Gallagher), Doctor (Lennie James), and Butler (Tim McInnerny). Things seem to be going okay, but the situation is complicated by the sudden addition of a stranger from the outside world, Girl (Moses Ingram). Boy takes a liking to Girl, of course, which puts Mother and Father on very shaky ground.
I might have enjoyed this more if it wasn't so pre-occupied with being some kind of artistic (anti-)musical. Having said that, if the music and lyrics had been better then that would have helped immensely. In fact, the biggest problem here, despite the distracting choices made in the production side of things, is a lack of any real insight. Oppenheimer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Rasmus Heisterberg, doesn't seem to have much of a point, aside from the standard growing pains that we've seen many times before. Although I didn't love it, even Annette (a film I believe has a number of artistic touchstones connecting to this) felt as if everything in it had a point. This does not. Oppenheimer has nothing interesting to say, and he fails to compensate for that by at least leaning in to something that could have made the 148-minute runtime worth investing in. Be bolder in the designs and vision, lean into some comedy or horror, or just make more of the musical element, instead of having every character simply stop occasionally to deliver one of many tuneless dirges.
The cast can't be faulted. MacKay is particularly good in his role, while both Swinton and Shannon feel as if they've decided to be a part of this project because it's just the kind of sandbox they like to play around in every couple of years. Gallagher gets at least one great moment, as does McInnerny, although James is disappointingly sidelined for most of the film. As for Ingram, her character certainly changes the dynamic of the film, but she's not really responsible for much more than just being a reminder of an outside world, a difficult past, and harsh decisions made that allowed these survivors to be in the position that we first found them in.
I have no doubt that quite a few people will have loved this when they saw it. It certainly has enough names on both sides of the camera to give it an in-built cachet for those seeking their next arthouse hit. I had hoped to enjoy it. If that wasn't to be then I had hoped to appreciate it, at the very least. I could do neither. There's some nice shot composition, but that's really not enough to make me feel that this was worth my time. All of my generous rating is down to the consistent quality of a cast unable to break out of the restraints put upon them by the material.
4/10
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