Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore in When You Finish Saving the World. Courtesy of Sundance.
When You Finish Saving the World is playing at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
When You Finish Saving the World comes close to finding its footing in the final twenty minutes, which is typically when a movie reveals its design to deliver a message or lesson. Actor-turned-director Jesse Eisenberg would have succeeded in that emotional gut-punch had the prior 70 minutes been more nuanced in its skewering of white upper middle-class suburban progressives. Instead, we’re hit over the head with obvious artifacts and dialogue to hammer in the point to oblivion. They drive a smart car! They listen to classical music! They think white people shouldn’t play the blues!
However, that is what makes it the perfect movie for Sundance. Audiences are typically more-forgiving and gravitate towards movies that have a message with a capital M. It’s no wonder the fest has become a bastion for actors to test their aptitude as writers and directors for the first time. First-time directors already have the tendency to over-direct and write. Actors who assume the director’s chair seem to make that mistake even more. It doesn’t help that Eisenberg also wrote the original story — released as an audiobook — and adapted it. Without someone to filter through all of the layers of this work, the movie becomes overwhelmed by its own sensibilities.
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Had When You Finish Saving the World either leaned more into its satire or had taken a more nuanced approach it might have succeeded– and there are flashes of success in both arenas. Evelyn (Julianne Moore) somberly assures Kyle (Billy Bryk), the son of a woman staying at the domestic abuse shelter she runs, that he’s not going to become his father. Hilariously, he responds, “why would I become him? I’m not worried about that.”
Evelyn’s son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), on the other hand, tries to connect with his politically engaged crush Lila (Alisha Boe) by touting his international online presence. “I have 20 thousand followers and I think what they like about me are my passion and charisma,” he says, making a point to single out one of his Chinese viewers.
Evelyn and Ziggy are both passionate about what they do, but also fundamentally misunderstand each other’s motivations — and their own. In theory, the movie’s central struggle is this mother-son dynamic and their inability to find value in the other’s mission. Evelyn is by the book, so much so that she sometimes comes off as disconnected. Ziggy is a free spirit and his songs, that exude mid-2000s garage emo pop-punk self-important sincerity, communicate a similar disconnect from reality.
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However, their screen time together is so limited that we’re unable to explore their connection to the depths we need to be interested as an audience. Their own storylines — Evelyn trying to “save” one of her charges and Ziggy trying to become “political” — feel so disparate that the movie becomes less than the sum of its parts.
Eisenberg’s heart is in the right place. The movie has its moments where it feels like the biting indictment of the white savior narrative almost takes full form, but when it’s as shallow as its two leads it becomes the exact thing it’s trying to lambast. The movie is for people that have the resources to help and the desire to help, but lack the emotional stakes and inherent empathy it takes to be an actual ally. It’s like a person saying they’re an empath and asking a crying person if they’re sad. The idea is there. It’s a minor, but well-intentioned vision, and unfortunately, too singular of a viewpoint to be effective in its primary message – that of saving the world.
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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