SUNDANCE 2022 | REVIEW: "When You Finish Saving The World" Leverages Great Performances For An Okay Adaptation
5/12 ForReel Score | 2/5 Stars
When assessing the differences between Evelyn Katz (Julianne Moore) and her son Ziggy Katz (Finn Wolfhard) in Jesse Eisenberg’s feature directorial debut When You Finish Saving The World, it’s easy to conclude that these two people are not meant to co-exist. Evelyn - an impassioned social worker with a stern and overly particular personality - struggles to understand or effectively communicate with her son. And Ziggy - an amatuer teenage musician and micro-influencer on a popular social media site - hates his mom interfering with his work and life. They are, in essence, on very different pages with what they expect from each other.
But while differences may drive Evelyn and Ziggy apart, their similarities are where the real conflicts in When You Finish Saving The World reside. Following surrogate relationships the two independently pursue outside of their nuclear household, Eisenberg curates a story here that is both endearing and aggravating. Although When You Finish Saving The World is a film that ultimately fails to procure a fully fleshed out deliverable, there are moments worthy of appreciation, as well as noteworthy performances from the film's two compelling leads, Julianne Moore and Fin Wolfhard.
In When You Finish Saving The World, Ziggy is riding a modest wave of fandom over his rudimentary acoustic love songs and hopes to use those credentials to woo his activist high school crush. Evelyn, meanwhile, has become enamored with a charming, motivated, and attractive teen when he and his mom Angie move into the domestic abuse shelter where she works. When together, Ziggy and Evelyn spar - often with childish banter - about their inability to tolerate each other. But when apart, entirely independent narratives take shape regarding the people they’re interested in, identifying their good intentions and the flaws in their character that comes with them.
Therein lies the similarities that sparks so much of the tension in this movie. Both Evelyn and Ziggy want to be good people. They both want to contribute positivity to the world. But they also are unwittingly self-centered in their motivations. In his script, Eisenberg puts a spotlight on these characters’ sincere actions and “lift” deeds (“lift” being Ziggy slang for “good” or “impressive”), and how their misguided sense of responsibility upstages their efforts to help people.
But what do Evelyn and Ziggy’s independent ambitions have to do with their relationship with each other? That is a question that When You Finish Saving The World does not address thoroughly enough. This is a film where three separate narratives run with very few touch points between them; like an interlocking anthology with the struggle of young love, the overzealous attraction to a young man, and the turmoil between mother and son just happen to use the same characters across storylines.
To that end, however, the cast is exceptional at engaging in their part of the story. Uncomfortable conversations and situations are bolstered by all-in performances from Moore and Wolfhard. And supporting cast members like Alisha Boe as Lila (Ziggy’s self-confident love interest) and Billy Bryk as Kyle (Evelyn’s soft-spoken pet project) uphold a magnetic on-screen presence.
This facet of the film might just imbue enough satisfaction into the experience of watching When You Finish Saving The World to offset the lack of conclusion to many of the film’s conflicts for some. But by the end of it, most threads that weave the tapestry of this narrative are left unwound as each relationship in the film is established, strained, and inspected, but not fully resolved. A glimpse into the aftermath of these characters’ choices or a more articulated sense of the consequences could have pushed When You Finish Saving The World into a more rewarding echelon of storytelling for the viewer.
Suffice to say, there is room for Eisenberg to grow as a filmmaker and storyteller. Much like how Evelyn and Ziggy’s contributions to society aren’t as grand as they expect, he likely won’t be saving the world with this film. But hey, at least we got some lift performances out of the endeavor.
Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 0 | Reviewer's Preference - 0 | What does this mean?