What Tomorrow Brings
A film like “What Tomorrow Brings” can be a challenge to review. The filmmaker is making his first feature, and he has cast family members in key roles. And from a production value standpoint, it is very rudimentary. The cinematography- by writer-director Matt Engelbert (who co-wrote the script with daughters Phoebe and Joely)- has almost no depth, and the performances are…fine, but hardly noteworthy. Having said all that- the story grabbed me, because it is about a struggle with anxiety and keeping life together, and as a struggler with anxiety, that will connect with me.
The main characters are Clara (Joely Engelbert) and her little sister, Ruby (Phoebe Engelbert). Clara is starting her senior year of high school with a cloud over her life; their father passed away, and their mother has left to try and get herself right afterwards. That leaves Clara and Ruby on their own. Clara is trying to have her own life, with a potential boyfriend, as well as a band she is the lead singer of, but as time without their parents continues, the responsibility of taking care of Ruby starts to become overwhelming. One day, a family lawyer (Lindsay, played by Grace Bydalek) comes into her school, and she looks into the idea of taking guardianship of Ruby. As time goes on, however, taking care of Ruby is crushing her life, and one day, everything seems to come to a head all at once.
When the film began, I found myself thinking about Kore-eda’s “Nobody Knows.” If you’re unfamiliar with the film, it’s about a 12-year-old boy who must take care of his younger siblings when their mother leaves them, and seems to abandon them. “What Tomorrow Brings” doesn’t get quite that harrowing- or haunting- but it does capture the overwhelming responsibility of suddenly becoming someone who is cared for to someone being a caregiver with thoughtfulness and empathy. One can probably guess where the family narrative is going to go, but not necessarily how Lindsay and her husband, Graham (Hugh Entrekin), play in it. When that moment comes, the story shifts into something else that, admittedly, feels a bit ham-handed, and not quite as emotionally honest as what we got in the first 2/3s of the film, but I will not lie- this sap had tears in their eyes all the same. If this sounds like the sort of family focused film you might appreciate. For the most part, I did.
