Here Before
BANK SIDE FILMSAlthough possessing great qualities as a performer, Andrea Riseborough has yet to hit that next level. From her recent works, it would appear she is desperate to. Her high-quality acting, presented in the likes of Possessor and The Electrical Life of Louis Wan mark Riseborough as a sincerely engaging talent. When given the chance to work on her own, on a feature that marks her out as the most important construct, it is a golden opportunity for the actor to prove what she is capable of. Here Before hands that opportunity to Riseborough on a silver platter, but neither director nor star can make heads or tails of what, exactly, this feature is trying to do.
Confused not for the sake of it but because it has so many strands it hopes to follow. Loose ends that will always remain unanswered are frustrating yet effectively lucid for Riseborough’s leading performance. Turbulent distractions from tragedy are built up by Here Before relatively well but in a fairly lucid state that relies more on the placement of the camera and the obvious connotations than it does the performances. Instead of the whiplash effect of the camera gazing up to the skies, the obvious intentions of characters together, it would be far more touching to focus on them rather than around them. Flashes of the child never had are replicated by the child currently with them – and as touching that is, it is completely off the base of what Here Before hopes to strike at.
Bad influences, worse intentions and solid performances make such a difficult and overbearing triple at times. Riseborough does exceptionally well as the mother holding it together on the surface but with a slowly sinister façade beginning to slip while the grief that keeps that in the spotlight churns on. As great a choice Riseborough is for the lead and how well she compartmentalises the desires of the psychological thriller on hand here, the tensions and terrors are, at best, slightly unnerving. A third act that comes apart at the seams and gives way to that inevitable rise of borderline horror is an interesting watch and a creepy one, but not one that feels all that well put together. Clumsy is the word Riseborough and company try to work around, but the blurry aesthetic of the events within makes that rather difficult.
Frustratingly close to being quite good at times, Here Before gets washed up in a problematic case of writing itself into a corner and then using a cop-out strategy of wild visuals and twists to get out of it. The results are not all that fancy and a bit ragged around the edges, but it is worth the watch for yet another strong performance from Riseborough, who once again proves that the emotional range she displays in her work is a rare gift that few can handle. Her strong work here is another piece to the puzzle of her filmography, one littered with relatively lukewarm projects that all have one, crucial piece in common. Riseborough excels in all of them, especially in the weird and tense notions Here Before offers up.