From Endings, Beginnings to Mortal - this week's movie reviews

Declan Burke takes you the best of this week's move releases

Shailene Woodley stars in Endings, Beginnins

Endings, Beginnings ****

Some people need more than a happy ever after. Endings, Beginnings (15A) opens with Daphne (Shailene Woodley) breaking up with Adrian, her boyfriend of four years, and not because the relationship isn’t working out but because she needs more. More of what, exactly, she finds it hard to explain: Daphne wants spontaneity and reliability, passion and comfort.

Rootless and restless, Daphne moves in with her sister Billie (Lindsay Sloan), swearing off men and booze for a minimum of six months — which makes it almost inevitable that she will meet two handsome guys, Jack (Jamie Dornan) and Frank (Sebastian Stan), at a New Year’s Eve party.

The synopsis to Drake Dormeus’ film sounds like the set-up to a romantic comedy, and especially when we learn that Jack and Frank are best friends, but Dormeus, who previously directed Like Crazy and here co-writes with Jardine Libaire, has no intention of playing Daphne’s dilemma for laughs.

While the story opens as if Daphne is going through a very early mid-life crisis, the script gradually begins to tease out the experiences that have resulted in her inability to fully commit. The key word here is gradually; Endings, Beginnings is a film that isn’t afraid to dwell on the tiny details and explore what might initially seem to be irrelevant narrative digressions.

It’s a brave approach, and Dormeus is rewarded with excellent performances from all three of his leading actors. While Jack and Frank clearly represent thoughtful consideration and impulsive instinct, respectively, both Dornan and Stan render their characters emotionally vulnerable in their own way; Shailene Woodley, meanwhile, is utterly compelling as a woman who is resolute in her refusal to compromise on what she requires from life.

The conclusion is surprisingly sentimental given all that has gone before, although by then there will be few viewers who will begrudge Daphne her hard-won inner peace. (multiple platforms)

Mortal ****

Mortal (12A) stars Nat Wolff as Eric, an American-Norwegian backpacker whom we first meet living rough in a Norwegian forest. S

uffering from bad burns and psychologically traumatised by the mysterious events that have led to his living like a hermit, Eric encounters a group of young men who torment him, one of whom dies — apparently self-combusting — when he touches Eric.

Pursued by the police and helped by Christine (Iben Akerlie), the psychologist enlisted to interrogate Eric about why he has travelled to Norway, Eric goes on the run, deeply disturbed by his supernatural ability to channel thunder and lightning and haunted by a recurring vision of a great tree that spans the entire sky.

André Øvredal first established his international reputation with the brilliantly offbeat Trollhunter (2010), and Mortal offers a similarly quirky take on the superhero movie.

Eric’s ability to manipulate thunderstorms, and the recurring vision of the great tree Yggdrasil, will alert any fan of mythology to the fact that he is an embryonic (or possibly reincarnated) Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse god.

There any comparison with Marvel movies ends: Eric is by no means the charming, arrogant and impossibly strong god of superhero lore, but a brutalised young man who is understandably terrified of the limitless powers he is unable to control.

It’s a fascinating concept that sets out to explore how an ordinary person might cope with the realisation that they are in fact divine — Eric is at one point even depicted as a modern Jesus working miracles — and while the execution doesn’t quite live up to the conceit, the film provides more food for thought than all the big-budget superhero movies combined.

Better known for playing the callow, sweet-natured boyfriend in The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Town, Nat Wolff here delivers an unexpectedly mature performance that persuasively charts Eric’s journey from mortal to immortal. (multiple platforms)

100% Wolf ***

Australian animation 100% Wolf (G) centres on young Freddy Lupin (voiced by Ilai Swindells), who is one day expected to replace his father Flasheart (Jai Courtney) as the leader of the werewolves who keep their city safe by night.

Freddy, in 100% Wolf

Unfortunately, Freddy’s first attempt to become a werewolf turns him into a poodle. Rejected by the wolf-pack, Freddy takes to the streets, determined to prove himself worthy of his father.

There are shades of The Lion King to 100% Wolf, not least when Freddy’s devious Uncle Hotspur (Rupert Degas) starts scheming to ensure Freddy never returns to the pack, but for the most part the director, Alexs Stadermann, is happy for 100% Wolf to stand on its own four paws.

Most of the movie is taken up with Freddy’s learning how to behave as a dog (cue the inevitable poop and parp jokes), aided and abetted by the street-wise mutt Batty (Samara Weaving), all of which results in a charming shaggy dog story.