After Darkness

I watched this movie try so hard - and I wanted it to succeed - but it didn't. It felt like a Lifetime Movie version of Melancholia, down to the perceived weakest family member being, in fact, the strongest one. Lars Von Trier's meditative pacing in Melancholia was very effective, however the pacing here is all over the place. Characters are undeveloped, events that would have explained motives and actions are unexplained, and character arcs are more like pinball trajectories. A barely watchable tangled mess.

The sun is going dark for an unknown reason. The Beaty family has gathered at home waiting for rescue that may not come.

This movie has a big idea but the question is what it does with it. It does very little with it. It turns the camera inwards upon this family. It's asking all the small questions. It ignores the one big question. The characters don't deal with it. I also question that the earth is still warm somehow. It should get cold much faster. It should be nuclear winter. Science is not the first concern in this movie with the big sci-fi idea. I'm not even going to question the green grass. At the end of the day, the family drama holds no real drama. Without actual drama, the movie struggles to gain traction.

So, so, so bad. Nothing about this movie is good except that it ends. There are Jr high kids making better movies using their phones-and with better acting! Don't waste a second on this one.

The reviews of this movie share a common mob mentality I've noticed on this and other sites, where several people are bored or have specific expectations of a movie and others tend to chime in.

Yes, this is not an action drama, and there's a lot of sitting, waiting and somber talk, but it held my full interest until the somewhat ambiguous ending. I'd see it for yourself in a setting without distractions and be your own judge.

The acting is solid here and that's about the only positive I can come up with for this most depressing and distressing apocalyptic film. Aside from the veteran pros Tim Daly and Kyra Sedgwick, young Natalia Dyer and John Patrick Amedori give excellent portrayals.

The sun is burning itself out and a highly dysfunctional family gathers in the hopes their politically connected father (Daly) can get them safe passage to "the caves" where the elite will go in case of natural catastrophe. The family though, will not only have to contend with the end of the world but with Daly's dictatorial and emotionally abusive self, as well as Sedgwick's mental unbalance.

As I see it, the viewer is just subjected here to a continuous bleak slog as the story plays out, which can be most difficult to watch at times. But then after all this, here comes one of the biggest cop-out endings I've seen in a long time. Do yourself a favor and avoid this mess of a movie.