Before We Begin Review: Wandering Fall Romance

Before We Begin looks beautiful and sounds comforting, but weak performances and dull writing leave it emotionally flat.

It’s a film that clearly wants to mean something, to capture the tenderness and hesitation of early adulthood. However, what ends up on screen often feels awkward, unshaped, and emotionally vacant.

The story revolves around Olivia (Yesly Dimate), a young artist preparing to move to New York, and Philip (Fahim), a philosophy student she meets at a small get-together at a mutual friend’s place. Their connection grows slowly, through quiet conversations. Fahim’s direction sets the tone early with soft lighting, long takes, and a comforting, minimal score that gives the film a sense of warmth. You can tell he’s going for a mood piece rather than a traditional narrative. 

From scene to scene, Before We Begin just… drifts. The conversations between Olivia and Philip should feel intimate, but they play like first drafts of something that hasn’t yet found its rhythm. The dialogue feels stilted and unnatural: lines that might have sounded poetic on paper come out forced and awkward on screen. The screenplay struggles to capture any genuine sense of emotional progression. Instead, it repeats the same cycle of vague introspection giving the impression of depth without earning it.

A major issue is the film’s central performance. Yesly Dimate’s portrayal of Olivia never feels lived-in. The screenplay doesn’t offer Olivia much interiority, but even within those limitations, the performance feels tentative. The lack of grounding in the character makes already-flat dialogue feel even thinner. Her delivery often sounds memorized, which drains the dialogue of any spontaneity. There’s no internal life behind her eyes, no hint of what Olivia is thinking or feeling beneath the surface. This lack of conviction makes it difficult to care about her journey, and since the entire film revolves around her perspective, the absence of emotional grounding becomes fatal.

Shazeb Fahim fares slightly better as Philip. He has an awkward charm that fits the character’s introspective nature, and he at least seems comfortable in front of the camera. But the chemistry between the two leads never quite clicks. Their conversations should draw us into a growing connection especially of moments where vulnerability and curiosity intersect; instead, we’re left watching two people recite lines at each other. There’s no sense of discovery or tension; just polite exchanges that go nowhere.

I do like how the film is surprisingly polished. Cinematographer Gabriel Carnick knows how to compose a shot, and he manages to give Before We Begin a sense of visual coherence that many micro-budget films lack. The autumnal palette, with its soft browns and oranges, gives the story a nostalgic touch. The cinematography often frames Olivia in quiet isolation, sitting by a window, sketching alone; in those wordless moments, the film actually breathes. Some of the walking-and-talking sequences between Olivia and Philip are nicely composed, capturing the quietness the film is reaching for. It’s as if the film’s images understood what its dialogue doesn’t: that sometimes emotion is best conveyed through silence, not speech.

The score, from composer Grace-Mary Burega, is genuinely lovely, warm, and unobtrusive, often doing more emotional work than the scenes themselves. It’s comforting, even tender, adding warmth and comfort to scenes. Unfortunately, that only goes so far when the pacing, the performances, and especially the dialogue often work against the atmosphere the film is trying to build

By the time Before We Begin reaches its conclusion, it hasn’t earned much of an ending. There’s no real sense of transformation or revelation. Olivia’s decision to move – or not move – to New York should feel like the emotional core of the story, but it lands with a dull thud because the film never builds toward anything meaningful. It’s not that the story needed a grand resolution, but it did need something to justify the time we’ve spent with these characters.

In the end, Before We Begin is less a fully formed story than a collection of moments searching for connection. There are times in which the movie feels like the beginning of something stronger, but the writing never develops the emotional beats needed to support the film’s tone. 

Before We Begin will be released on digital platforms on November 21, 2025.