A young Australian man heads to the front and there sees more than he bargained for while trying to survive with his battalion.
Written by Jordon Prince-Wright and Jarrad Russell and directed by Prince-Wright, this war drama will likely only appeal to diehard fans of the genre. While it’s based on historical facts, the lead character and his story are fictional and made up for the film, likely gathering the stories of many soldiers during the war as inspiration. This could have led to a fantastic film filled with gripping scenes and hard emotions, but instead, we are served a film that is bland and just barely above boring. The story loses the interest quickly and never really grabs it back. The characters aren’t terrible, but the way they interact with each other feels cliché in the blandest of ways.
The cast here does what they can to bring more to their characters with performances that work as best as they can here, giving the viewer something to latch on when the story just leaves them unsatisfied. The characters are a bit thin, but the cast does all they can to make them more human and make the viewer care about their plight. Levi Miller, as Jim Collins, does his best to bring a fully fleshed character to the screen and give him a bit of nuance, but it all seems to get lost in the story and in the many characters surrounding him. A few days after watching the movie, looking at the cast with their headshots on IMDB helps none when it comes to associating the parts with the people, even with names, as they all worked ok, but there isn’t really a single stand out here. The actors do what they can, but the film seems to get in their way.
One item that is on point here is the cinematography. It’s gloomy, it’s cold, and it’s eerily beautiful. The work by Daniel Quinn (and team) is beautiful and sad, it’s very appropriate for a war film and it offers respite here and there when the story gets heavier. It’s just right and it’s much more than that. It looks stunning at times, making great use of the available light and location, showing just the right angles, and at times no shying away from difficult scenes and sequences. This is how to film a war film and one of the highlights of this film.
Before Dawn feels like a film that is almost there. The script needs a bit more time, a bit more work, the direction needs a bit more finessing, the acting is as it can with the writing and direction, and the cinematography saves the film from feeling like a bit of a waste of time. This all ends up bring both a bit boring and frustrating to watch as the viewer can see where things could have been better, where the story could have gone, and how some elements could have been changed to make this a much stronger film. War film fans will either love it or hate it, depending on how much they’ll connect with the lead and what they are looking for in their entertainment.
