Avis Metacritic

Before You Know It packs a lot of character development into 98 minutes. By the film’s end, tears are shed (perhaps including yours, the audience member’s), jealousies uncorked, and secrets aired – but while each player has their disparate arc, they defy contrivance.

By leaning into the character-driven nature of the story and a remarkably yoked ensemble cast, Before You Know It becomes something much more than a “chick flick”: It's a nuanced treatment of how the dynamics that bond a family together can also tear it apart.

Before You Know It doesn’t balk at quirkiness, but it never uses it as a crutch or the only way to process the story.

Before You Know It shifts seamlessly from quirky to sad to mysterious to wacky to surreal within just the space of a few days, so much so that you’d never know it’s director Hannah Pearl Utt’s feature filmmaking debut.

Before You Know It comes off as pharmaceutical-grade Hallmark Channel, which means that Utt and Tullock take the same familiar elements and end up finding some absolutely hilarious scenes that remind us why we love the movies, to begin with, just not consistently.

There isn’t much to Before You Know It, but where there is I have to say I absolutely adored.

It’s a charming and quirky New York tale, if a bit disorganized, finding its voice when it quiets down to just listen to the three women at the center of the story.

There are a good number of funny and pointed individual scenes and bit parts here (Alec Baldwin is droll as an inept therapist).

A diverting yet awkward mix of farcical elements and earnest feeliness. The two never quite gel, and it’s hard to care about the nice characters who somewhat improbably put up with wildly insufferable ones. There’s some invention and good humor here, yet the whole feels inorganic.

Instead of focusing on the strength of some of her material here, Utt strikes out in far too many directions.