A movie advertised as a film about two friends who go through the “will they, won’t they” push and pull, “All the Days Before Tomorrow,” feels more like a reminiscence of love lost, without actually losing it. Starting with Allison, one of the main characters awakening in a hotel room next to her boyfriend in a scene entitled “Tokyo, not today,” the movie leaves you wondering what part of the reminiscence, and what view into the two character’s lives we are experiencing.
Intertwined into the movie, amidst poignant scenes between the focus of the film, Wes and Allison, are scenes with Wes and a nameless black man clad in top hat and tuxedo—who serves to challenge Wes in his thinking while serving as a sounding board for Wes as he moves through issues in his life. While never giving away that the relationship between Wes and Allison is the fodder for these reflective scenes, the implication in certain scenes leaves little other interpretation. Wes, dancing to a phonograph the mysterious tuxedo-clad man is playing states, “Why can’t we just keep dancing?” in answer to the unnamed questions put to him by the man about his life and his choices.
The relationship between Allison and Wes is shown, likewise, in a thorough and likable fashion, letting us see who these characters are and allowing us to examine their friendship from a unique perspective. Going from a scene two years ago in Montréal, to one summer ago in Utah, it shows both the awkward conversations and interactions between the two, and the attitudes that line their thoughts.
The movie doesn’t try to answer the question of their relationship, but to describe it much like an artist will paint a landscape. In one scene, we can see Wes’ consternation with Allison, and in another we can see Allison’s confusion one night after things between the two of them go too far. With the entire movie feeling like a flashback, we never feel that we know where it’s going, but feel that we want to, which keeps the viewers interest.
If the movie is slow-paced and more about describing attitudes and emotions than about defining plot, the movie concludes, leaving viewers wondering the same things they have wondered throughout the movie without answering any questions. While Wes, sitting on a cracked desert earth with the tuxedo-clad man may seem bizarre, it is no less so as the movie concludes with a snow-storm in Los Angeles, neither character seeming to mind.
This is a good movie, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of being drawn into a movie, though you don’t know where it is going. “All the Days Before Tomorrow“ accomplishes this with amazing ease, seeming more a snippet of real-life than fantasy, while still reminding you that it is a movie, and one you are eager to see how it ends—no matter what this ending may be.
