{"id":50133,"date":"2025-10-15T00:42:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=50133"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:42:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:42:49","slug":"if-you-should-leave-before-me-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/15\/if-you-should-leave-before-me-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Should Leave Before Me (2025)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After a loss that affected them heavily, a married couple must continue with their work of helping people cross over to the afterlife.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Boyd Anderson and J. Markus Anderson, credited as The Andersons, If You Should Leave Before\u00a0Me\u00a0is a story of love, letting\u00a0go, and moving on. There is a\u00a0ton\u00a0in\u00a0here,\u00a0and the film does suffer a bit from \u201ctoo much\u201d and too long of a runtime, but the first hour and last 15 minutes here are solid.\u00a0The themes are well explored, the love story is charming, there is something to pull at every heart string, and a few comic moments that work\u00a0really well. The writing is good and so is the direction, but the film could have used a but if a trim on the runtime.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cast here is where the film wins with a bunch of talented folks giving good to solid performances. The two leads here are played by Shane P. Allen and John Wilcox who show care and chemistry\u00a0as well as some disagreement here and there, but it all works great for their characters. Their work here sells the film, keeps the viewer interested, and helps the story connect with the audience.\u00a0The supporting cast has solid performances from Merrick\u00a0McCartha\u00a0as Lorne, the first soul they\u00a0meet,\u00a0and his performance is charming and sad, just in the right measurements to make the film feel like something is about to be said here.\u00a0Sarah Sawyer has a different type of death and meeting with one of the \u201cdeath counselors\u201d,\u00a0giving her an emotional connection that some will identify with a lot (like this reviewer for example).\u00a0The cast overall is\u00a0really good\u00a0and works well as an ensemble.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cinematography here is interesting in that it looks\u00a0good,\u00a0but it also is not always in the same aspect ratio which may get on some folks\u2019 nerves, but it works well here. The work by cinematographer Dan Watt makes\u00a0good use\u00a0of the different aspect ratios and of the different rooms the story takes place in. There is a lot in some of these rooms and the camera work makes the most if it, helping show off the work of set designers Ava\u00a0Decapri\u00a0and Nico Pliskin. Their work in the second room\u00a0in particular is\u00a0fantastic, showing the personality of each person the couple needs to\u00a0assist\u00a0in ways that are lovely to look at sometimes and a bit depressive at other times.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The film here is touching and heartfelt with a few substories that are really worth checking out as well.\u00a0The runtime is a bit too\u00a0long,\u00a0and some of the substories could easily have been cut to make for a more concise and impactful film. Still, this is a good one with some\u00a0good\u00a0writing\u00a0and direction, a few great performances, and a bunch of\u00a0say\u00a0about love, grief, letting go, and moving on.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a loss that affected them heavily, a married couple must continue with their work of helping people cross over to the afterlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,349],"class_list":["post-50133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-fantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50134,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50133\/revisions\/50134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}