Richie is so stressed out with all the combinations of missing his girl Vista, out of a job, and most dominantly drugs consumption effects. He knows that this can out right be his last day to live due to being out of money to get more drugs. Suddenly his distanced sister Maggie calls, yelling at her asking for a favor to pick up her daughter Sophia from school. Richie and Maggie hasn't contact each other for about five years. But Richie agrees to help. Looking dosed, he picks up Sophia, who immediately emits a very non-friendly aura on him. Richie goes home after Sophia tells him he can do so. At home he finds out that his friend wrongly supplied menopausal treatment pills to him.Maggie calls her again, furious to know that Richie left Sophia alone. Richie then picks up Sophia and takes her away from Maggie's apartment on Maggie's orders due to her being arrested. He tells Sophia that he used to draw cartoon on flip books. One of the characters he created was named Sophia, which Maggie really liked.
Richie doesn't want Sophia In his place, so he takes her to other places instead. He takes her to a bowling alley but she prefers to do her homework there. The alley's owner Gideon asks Richie about Gideon's girl, to which he doesn't answer completely honest. Richie then takes Sophia to his ex apartment to retrieve his old flip books but the visit terrifies her. Sophia is calmed after seeing the flip book. Richie's drug effects takes a toll on him as he suddenly bleeds. Sophia rushes to save him and succeeds. Richie also goes and beats Maggie's ex husband for mocking Sophia. Richie takes Sophia while he meets his drug seller Bill. He remembered seeing Gideon's girl dying on Bill's toilet. He immediately takes Sophia out of there. As Sophia asks, Richie explains the distanced relationship between him and Maggie. Richie takes Sophia back to Maggie's place as Sophia asks. He can't get in because the guards there kick him out due to property distraction earlier that day. He goes to Gideon and tells the truth. He then goes back home and imagines Vista again.
Okay, the story tried to mix in the fairly distanced concepts of a drug addict's world and family reconciliation, the latter being the more dominant. I have to say that it is quite an attempt. Yet it sure does result in a not so tight finished product of a story. The two main concepts alternately fill the movie's focus from time to time. But the movie finds it hard to have the two concepts at a combined focus on a single event on screen.
The story goes quite well enough with its way of approaching its themes alternately. Quite frankly it feels like quite a stable story of two alternating sub stories. The momentum building is nice and the conflict unveils itself neatly. At the focus of Richie's addiction, it's nice to see how he fights to get a grip on things of life, even though today may be his last day. At the family reconciliation between Richie and Sophia, it's nice to see how Richie unfolds detail by detail of him and Maggie to Sophia, changing Sophia's view to him.
But it proves that the movie finds it hard to give the one final touch for its ending. The final conflict, or should I say conflicts, seem off in connection to the hallucinated and spiteful story building of the entire movie duration. The confrontation with Gideon feels quite stupid to me despite it's very nice of Richie to square things off with him. The conversation with the released Maggie feels quite right and it's nice to see that Maggie gives in a little bit to include Richie in Sophia's life. Yet it doesn't really connect to Richie 's drug problem.
The acting overall is just a decent work. Shawn Christensen did well in depicting the dosed yet caring uncle who voluntarily steps out of his niece's life to help her from bad influence such as he is. His expressions are very nicely done; the glazed stare, the angry outbursts, the painful moments. Fatima Ptacek did very good in portraying the distanced yet slowly drawn back in niece. She is nicely confident in her acting as seen on the difference between the assassin-face gymnastics and the bowling alley dancing scenes.
For me Before I Disappear (2014) is worth a 5 out of 10 score. It's a good job in overall but it could have been even better if only the story can give a better final conflict and ending. A recommendation is unfortunately out of the question for me.
Richie doesn't want Sophia In his place, so he takes her to other places instead. He takes her to a bowling alley but she prefers to do her homework there. The alley's owner Gideon asks Richie about Gideon's girl, to which he doesn't answer completely honest. Richie then takes Sophia to his ex apartment to retrieve his old flip books but the visit terrifies her. Sophia is calmed after seeing the flip book. Richie's drug effects takes a toll on him as he suddenly bleeds. Sophia rushes to save him and succeeds. Richie also goes and beats Maggie's ex husband for mocking Sophia. Richie takes Sophia while he meets his drug seller Bill. He remembered seeing Gideon's girl dying on Bill's toilet. He immediately takes Sophia out of there. As Sophia asks, Richie explains the distanced relationship between him and Maggie. Richie takes Sophia back to Maggie's place as Sophia asks. He can't get in because the guards there kick him out due to property distraction earlier that day. He goes to Gideon and tells the truth. He then goes back home and imagines Vista again.
Okay, the story tried to mix in the fairly distanced concepts of a drug addict's world and family reconciliation, the latter being the more dominant. I have to say that it is quite an attempt. Yet it sure does result in a not so tight finished product of a story. The two main concepts alternately fill the movie's focus from time to time. But the movie finds it hard to have the two concepts at a combined focus on a single event on screen.
The story goes quite well enough with its way of approaching its themes alternately. Quite frankly it feels like quite a stable story of two alternating sub stories. The momentum building is nice and the conflict unveils itself neatly. At the focus of Richie's addiction, it's nice to see how he fights to get a grip on things of life, even though today may be his last day. At the family reconciliation between Richie and Sophia, it's nice to see how Richie unfolds detail by detail of him and Maggie to Sophia, changing Sophia's view to him.
But it proves that the movie finds it hard to give the one final touch for its ending. The final conflict, or should I say conflicts, seem off in connection to the hallucinated and spiteful story building of the entire movie duration. The confrontation with Gideon feels quite stupid to me despite it's very nice of Richie to square things off with him. The conversation with the released Maggie feels quite right and it's nice to see that Maggie gives in a little bit to include Richie in Sophia's life. Yet it doesn't really connect to Richie 's drug problem.
The acting overall is just a decent work. Shawn Christensen did well in depicting the dosed yet caring uncle who voluntarily steps out of his niece's life to help her from bad influence such as he is. His expressions are very nicely done; the glazed stare, the angry outbursts, the painful moments. Fatima Ptacek did very good in portraying the distanced yet slowly drawn back in niece. She is nicely confident in her acting as seen on the difference between the assassin-face gymnastics and the bowling alley dancing scenes.
For me Before I Disappear (2014) is worth a 5 out of 10 score. It's a good job in overall but it could have been even better if only the story can give a better final conflict and ending. A recommendation is unfortunately out of the question for me.