![]() But the casual talk about fear of emotion, and passion being left by the roadside on the way out of one’s early 20s seems just a formality to stall Daphne’s inevitable tumble into bed with both men. The discovery that Frank and Jack are buddies causes both Daphne and the guys to step back for fear of driving a wedge into their friendship. Frank comes on strong, sending her flirty texts and a Spotify playlist of “Music to Suffer To.” (This plays right into Doremus’ hands, since he never met a montage or a wispy indie-rock underlay he didn’t like.) Jack is more conventional in his approach, inviting her to watch him drink while she consumes a non-alcoholic beverage. That vow starts looking shaky at Billie’s New Year’s Eve party, where Daphne first meets Frank (Stan) over cigarettes and insufferable (though not to either of them) small talk, and then writer-teacher Jack (Dornan), whose Irish accent and academic credentials give him more substance. “That’s terrifying,” deadpans Daphne, though she pledges to herself to take a six-month sabbatical from drinking and men, determined to break the messy pattern of her emotional life. Her older friend and confidante, Ingrid ( Kyra Sedgwick), suggests she take a break and spend some time alone. While figuring out what’s next, she moves back into the pool house of her married half-sister Billie (Lindsay Sloane), seemingly not for the first time. She was convinced he was “the one,” but seems to have sabotaged that hope with a one-night stand with Jed (Ben Esler), which caused her also to abruptly quit her job. And on the evidence of their soporific dialogue here, Woodley, Dornan and Stan are not going to cause Aaron Sorkin any sleepless nights.ĭaphne (Woodley) is reeling from the end of a four-year relationship with Adrian (Matthew Gray Gubler). But Doremus is no Mike Leigh, whose process involves extended rehearsal periods of improvisation and experimentation to refine characters and storylines. Stan does well as a sly charmer, while Dornan has the drier part of playing solid and dependable.No such magic elevates the stubbornly wan new film, which was developed from a basic outline with backstories, written by Doremus with novelist Jardine Libaire the actors collaborated to flesh out their own characters and dialogue. Woodley often plays in a similar register of sullen and withdrawn as her character on TV’s “Big Little Lies,” but rather than the underlying rage of that performance, here she fills it with a light trying to peek out from behind the clouds. “Endings, Beginnings” comes down to the strengths of its central trio and all three are compelling performers in their own way. The sequences also start to feel padded, as if there wasn’t enough movie to go around. With stronger material to start with, the actors might have conveyed the film’s scenario more convincingly.ĭoremus also over-relies on montages to fill in the gaps between proper scenes and in the characters’ developing relationships. The film’s languid tone of post-sex haze and late-afternoon sunshine comes across as limp and underdeveloped, leaving the actors, not the characters, frequently seeming lost and unsure of themselves within the scenes. ![]() Though with a screenplay credited to Doremus and novelist Jardine Libaire, the film is reported to be semi-improvised, much to its detriment. When it turns out they are close friends, a complicated situation becomes even trickier. Naturally, she soon meets both the stable Jack (Jamie Dornan) and unpredictable Frank (Sebastian Stan) and finds herself equally drawn to them. Daphne ( Shailene Woodley) breaks up with her long-time boyfriend, quits her job and moves into her sister’s poolhouse all in one week, vowing off men and alcohol for six months. Directed by Drake Doremus, “Endings, Beginnings” is set amid a familiar world of young creative types in Los Angeles.
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