Here Before delivers on an emotional level due to a reliably great performance from Andrea Riseborough.
Laura (Andrea Riseborough) is a women who is dealing with the fallout from a pronounced loss in the form of her daughter Josie. When a family move in next door with their daughter Megan (Niamh Dornan), their connection is instant, with Laura wanting to be around her and Megan spending increasing amounts of time at her new neighbour’s house. As Megan begins to act out at school, the relationship is called into question.
It is the performances that secure the film’s quiet power, with a meditation on grief, but more explicitly on yearning for a past that cannot be reclaimed. It is exactly the kind of role that Andrea Riseborough excels at, holding the weight of the world on her shoulders in every scene. Though she carries the emotional weight, there is also enough emotional softness and even fragility to her performance that lends her interactions with Megan a gentle quality. While many of Megan’s strange behaviours are relayed in dialogue about her when she is called upon she delivers a convincing, confident performance.
Lewis McAskie offers a strong supporting performance as Laura and Brendan’s (Jonjo O’Neill) son Tadhg. Initially quietly hostile about the relationship between his mother and the neighbour’s daughter, that hostility soon bubbles to the surface in a combination of frustration and worry for her state of mind. The entire film rests on nervous energy and the potential of something to erupt at any moment.
Disorientating sequences with dissonant sound and images give the film a lift from an otherwise beige, domestic space. These dreams are further stylised by elements presenting as out of sync, echoing Laura’s increasingly fragmented mental state. Chirpy songs combine with swirling visuals before cutting to an abrupt silence. The soundtrack plucks at its most sinister moments although this is a film that operates a high level of restraint. Conversations are also cut or silenced in the middle of responses, leaving hopes of clarity tantalisingly close, yet drawing out any resolution for as long as possible.
Here Before is a disarmingly quiet film that does suffer from taking on a story that only has a few directions to head in. It does well to straddle those directions for much of the runtime, resulting in a conclusion that comes too late to impact the viewer quite as much as it should. This is the kind of film that lingers in the mind for a while afterwards, taking up space to consider the pay-off even days after viewing.
A film that is rightly more interested in exploring the way that grief impacts those left behind than providing too much sensationalism Here Before is a solid film that expands beyond its runtime.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Here Before played the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival. More information on the festival is available from their webpage.
Here Before is released in UK cinemas on February 18th
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