Here Before

Great to see good films being made in Northern Ireland these days. Days of the troubles are gone.

Superb acting and different kinda story. I enjoyed it.

The ending is rushed, needed more room to unravel and breath.

On paper, this should be a good film: a psychological thriller, centred on grief and on the tension between common sense and being desperate to believe in something beyond reality. However, other than some pretty decent acting, the film fails in every other respect.

The atmosphere and suspense doesn't properly build up, it's rather deflated throughout the film (it doesn't even properly pick up in the third act), neither does the psychological portrait of the main heroine. It's supposed to mainly be about her slow descent into grief-fuelled paranoia, but that gets side-tracked by a lack of coherence in every other character's behaviour.

It might have worked if it had been entirely focused on the main heroine's point of view, but instead we jump around following a bunch of characters whose motives and internal worlds are entirely opaque, being given nothing to work with. And then at the very end, where you hope for everything to finally fall into place, the resolution is anticlimactic and not particularly believable either.

Slow with the use of too many 'flashbacks'. Not sure if it was the soundtrack or the Northern Irish accents, but difficult to follow what was being said at times. Unexpected but improbable twist at the end.

When a couple and their young daughter move in next door, Andrea Risborough, whose own daughter died years before, starts taking an interest in the girl and begins to believe that she may actually be her daughter.

Fascinating drama / thriller centred around motherhood and the loss of child. What holds this together do well is that you're never entirely sure where this is going. Is she just losing it following the loss of her daughter or is there something supernatural going on and why is the girl seemingly equally interested in Risborough? That it gets through all this mystery and comes up with a solid, convincing conclusion is to its great credit. Everyone in it acts very well, but of course Risborough is top of the pops here and gives a delivers a great turn, carefully avoiding endless, over the top melodrama. Definitely worth catching.

SXSW 2021 Greetings again from the darkness. Grief can be the most powerful and dangerous emotion we experience as humans. Anger and joy come and go, but real grief seeps into our marrow and becomes part of our being. Writer-director Stacey Gregg wisely tackles the topic with the assistance of the always excellent Andrea Riseborough (a resume loaded with strong projects) as Laura, a mother who begins to believe that her deceased daughter Josie has been reincarnated as the new neighbors' daughter, Megan (Niamh Dornan).

Ms. Gregg expertly builds tension and doubt through the film's first half, and throws a terrific curve ball in the final act ... one I kick myself and applaud the filmmaker for not seeing it coming. There is an awkwardness between the two families forced together by a shared dwelling wall. That awkwardness only builds as Laura continually oversteps boundaries when it comes to Megan, who seems to know entirely too many details when it comes to Josie's death.

Megan's parents, Marie (Eileen O'Higgins) and Chris (Martin McCann), are from a different socio-economic class than their neighbors, and the uncomfortable connection extends to Laura's husband, Brendon (Jonjo O'Neill) and son, Tadhg (Lewis McAkie). Whether it's in the front yard, at school, or the grocery story, each time these families cross paths leaves us with weird vibes and feeling more confused. Is something supernatural at play here?

The cinematography from Chloe Thomson is superb, and composer Adam Janota Bzowski is pitch perfect is giving us just enough at the right moments. Set in Belfast, this is a gripping thriller with terrific performances throughout. Stacey Gregg makes it look all too easy with her first feature film.