In the fine tradition of Noah Baumbach and Woody Allen, Before You Know It is yet another NYC-centric tale heavily reliant on carefully observed humor, familial disintegration, and personal neuroses enough (fingers crossed!) to obscure the fact that nobody wrote a plot. Two sisters, an actress and a stage manger, live on top of a forgotten playhouse and take turns being worried about stuff. Well, gosh, I sure can’t fault the principals for not knowing their subject. I wouldn’t count on them for depth of knowledge on any other subject, mind you, but I bet they have “whatever goes on at a tiny stage theater” knowledge out the wazoo.
Jackie (co-writer Jen Tullock) and Rachel (writer/director Hannah Pearl Utt – and I recommend the Pearl Utt inlay for all your finer home remodeling projects) are both in a holding pattern. Their lives are dominated by dad (Mandy Patinkin) and his dream of living hand-to-mouth above a twenty seat community theater. Dad is a train wreck. Jackie is a single mother and a train-wreck. Her tween Dodge (Oona Yaffe) has appropriately managed to avoid the wreckage, but she’s a tween. Hence it’s up to neurotic writer/director/stage manager/casting director/foley artist Rachel to save everybody. Except she can’t because hidden within this type-A wannabe, there’s an inner train-wreck.
I’ll cut right to the chase: dad dies leaving lots of bills and a question of stage ownership. What are these women going to do? This is a film that’s gonna test your neurotic threshold. How long and in how many ways can you handle dialogue and a series of facial expressions all saying, “What am I gonna do, now?” Well, what are ya gonna do, reader? Cuz the problems of Jane Austen and Jane Eyre are going to be retold again and again and again in greater and, like today, lesser forms. How is this trio going to find financial security, kinship, and manage to put on dad’s play? My guess is it will happen Before You Know It.
Only on screen for five minutes, Mandy Patinkin manages to squeeze in an entire film of overacting. You know what, Inigo? This ain’t TV; sometimes understated is better for a theater performance.
This film represents the downside to NYC, the insulation of urbanity, and “write what you know.” Hannah Pearl Utt definitely has some talent, but this particular piece feels like an NYU student got a grant and a two-week deadline. BYKI isn’t a terrible film by any stretch, and yet it feels like a recipe: set up your small world Manhattan, add some dysfunction, shovel in a strong helping of financial issues, toss in a little Alec Baldwin and maybe a Pride moment or two and viola! Movie. I think I could make this film by now. Titularly quixotic and forgettable, Before You Know It kinda sums up my feelings for this film – I don’t know what that phrase refers to, and I gave it some some thought, but the film ended Before I Knew It.
Two sisters running a stage in Manhattan
Found eviction worth the combattin’
“Ladies,” I says
“If no one sees your plays
You may as well live on I. Staten”
Not Rated, 98 Minutes
Director: Hannah Pearl Utt
Writer: Jen Tullock, Hannah Pearl Utt
Genre: “I live in the city”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: NYU film students hoping to get the same breaks
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Country mice
