In The End, a stodgy family lives underground in a decadent bunker after a post-apocalyptic event, doing what they can to pass the time. An odd musical and a a story that goes on and on without much momentum, you soon wish The End would come sooner than it does.
Starring George MacKay, Tulsa Swinton, Michael Shannon, and Moses Ingram, The End begins promising enough, introducing us to this slightly surreal (by being utterly not-surreal) underground world where a rich family and a few tagalongs live in fragile harmony. When a young woman somehow makes her way inside, things are thrust into disarray—similar to the disarray an out-of-place napkin would cause in an episode of Downton Abbey, albeit with less entertainment value.
The musical elements are both intriguingly unique and instantly forgettable, similar to how the creative decision to make The End a musical in the first place is its one unique trait—but also its limiting factor.
At two-and-a-half hours long, The End is just damn long, its concept worthy of 90 minutes maximum. I was into the movie for a while and then it becomes slightly tedious and then more tedious, but you keep watching because you want to see how… it ends. And then it just fizzles to its conclusion, a yawner stretch of a third act that, two weeks later, completely escapes my memory.
The End could work better as a stageplay, given it’s small cast, constrained setting, and musical numbers. But even then, I’d question the point of the whole affair. It’s still unclear to me.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.