Review of Before We Go (2014) by Meydianarizki21 — 24 Sep 2021

Beautiful, thoughtful, quiet, poignant, and true.

This film is excellent. Top-notch writing, entirely driven by strong characterization without contrivances. The acting is excellent, and the dialogue is believable, natural, and honest. This is not your average romcom, and it might not even qualify as a romcom at all, because although it asks many of the kinds of questions that romcoms try to ask, it answers them with far more maturity than most do. This story has themes that resonate and an ending that delivers. There are moments of the transcendent alongside moments of the awkward, and that gives the experience a ring of realism. The personal mysteries are revealed at a good pace, and the story never becomes saccharine, boring, or entirely predictable. I appreciated the good use of silence. I was occasionally annoyed by the unnecessary shakiness of the hand-held camera or the blurry focus of foreground objects, but that only happened a couple of times. This is otherwise a beautiful, thoughtful, quiet, poignant, and true character piece, and it's well worth the watching..