Everything Before Us (2015)

From: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/everythingbeforeus

Synopsis: The Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI) documents all relationship activity. A 'relationship score' is given to keep people accountable for their choices. The score is public for all to see, and affects various aspects of daily life. Two couples, teenagers and early 30s, face different but intersecting challenges in their relationships within the rules of the DEI. (From IMDb)

At different stages of our lives, our perception of relationships and idea of love changes. We grow up, gain new insights. From these experiences we learn to ultimately become better versions of ourselves.

There are two main relationships. The "love is all we need" teenagers, Seth (Brandon Soo Hoo) and Haley (Victoria Park). The separated adults, Ben (Aaron Yoo) and Sara (Brittany Ishibashi).

I'm 21 years old, and I have not really been in a committed relationship before. I'm in the middle of being a teenager and an adult. Personally, I can relate more to the teenagers, although I enjoyed the relationship of the adults more. 

Haley is moving to another state for college, away from Seth. They impulsively sign up for the DEI together, believing that their long distance relationship will work somehow. Their interactions in the beginning were rather cringe inducing, with the scene of Seth giving Haley only one glove because her other hand fits perfectly with his. Their  relationship is not really established at all, the only interactions I see are through a montage of them hanging out together doing mundane couple activities (walking in the park, kissing). The reason for them being together seems very superficial. I find myself not caring about the state of these teenagers. When they had conflicts, it didn't really bother me. I see Seth and Haley's relationship as a representation of "blind love", they are only together because of their over-preaching declaration of love for each other.

Ben wants to get into this design firm "Origin", but due to his break up with Sara his DEI score is too low. Sara on the other hand, has a high DEI score and has no problems getting a loan to open her very own bakery. Ben has to get help from Sara, thus giving him a reason to meet up with her and possibly rekindle their relationship. Their history is slowly revealed throughout the film, and we find out that they broke up due to the lack of time spent with each other. They slowly grew apart and in a moment of weakness, Sara kissed a co-worker. This comes back full circle when Ben kisses Sara, while he was dating Anna (Joanna Sotomura). Anna is quite inconsistent as a character, in the beginning she seems to be only concerned about socialising with people who have high DEI points. She is then concerned about Ben spending too much time with Sara, which is reasonable. When Anna finally decides to break up with Ben, she somehow immediately feels remorse for causing him to lose his job and tries to give him a second chance. I felt that Anna was a wasted chance at being a great antagonist for the couple.

The story of Ben and Sara is clearly more flushed out, being the main focus in the film. This in turn really overshadows the story of the teenagers. In fact I feel that if the teenagers were removed from the film entirely, more time could be used to develop the characters of Ben and Sara even more. I felt that Wong Fu Productions might be a little over-ambitious in trying to appeal to larger range of demographic by essentially telling the story of two relationships of different ages.  

Despite the fact that most of the plot were predictable, there was a sense of realness in the character's interactions, more so with Ben and Sara. Wong Fu Productions manages to capture relatable emotions of two couples in different stages of their lives. 

MY RATING: 3/4

Cheers
Sman