Before You Go (Julie Walters)

(Amazon UK link)

I don’t know how the 2002 film ‘Before you go’ ended up on my wishlist. Perhaps Amazon recommended it to me, based on films I had previously chosen. Perhaps it was because Julie Walters is one of the main characters. Perhaps someone else suggested it. It doesn’t matter: I was given it for my recent birthday, and we watched it last night.

Julie Walters is excellent as the rather uptight middle-aged Teresa, who is always perfectly made up and appropriately dressed. She’s married to Frank (Tom Wilkinson) and they have mainly been responsible for looking after her mother Vi (Patricia Hodge). We first meet them talking to a hospital doctor, learning that Vi has died.

Teresa has two sisters: Mary (Joanna Whalley) is the middle one, who is a busy doctor. She’s having an affair with one of her colleagues, Mike (John Hannah) who is married, and has mixed memories of her childhood. But personality-wise she’s probably the most ‘normal’ of the three… except that she keeps seeing her mother walking around the house, talking to her, as a realistic ghost.

The youngest, Catherine (Victoria Hamilton) is a wonderful caricature of an impoverished joint-smoking hippy, who drinks too much and has been living in Thailand, hoping to get married to one of the locals.

The film takes place over a few days as the three very different sisters get together, attempting to sort out some of their mother’s possessions, and organising the funeral. They have rather different memories of the past, and Teresa disapproves of both her sisters for different reasons - but she’s also very fond of them.

It’s billed as a comedy drama, and the blurb on the back of the DVD box says it’s ‘a cert for laughs’. There are one or two amusing moments in the film; such as when Teresa attempts to relax by singing recipes. Catherine’s excesses could perhaps be viewed as funny although we thought them a bit sad; however one scene involving two of the sisters trying on some of their mother’s clothes, while drinking too much, is light-hearted and somewhat amusing, but turns into slapstick and becomes rather silly.

Overall we thought it poignant rather than comic. The reason for the sisters being together is obviously somewhat sad, and some of what comes up in the past is tragic - including one revelation towards the end. However, once we’d realised it was a drama with a few light moments, the film was surprisingly engaging and enjoyable.

When I wasn’t involved in what was happening, I was wracking my brains to try to remember where I had previously seen Victoria Hamilton - and, to a lesser extent, John Hannah. Both have distinctive faces, and I was certain I’d seen Victoria Hamilton somewhere recently but could not recall where. As soon as the film ended I googled; John Hannah was in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, which I should perhaps have remembered. But I mentally kicked myself when I realised that Victoria Hamilton was a significant character in the excellent TV drama ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ which we finished watching in January this year.

'Before you go' is rated 15 in the UK, and I think that’s probably right. There are scenes of intimacy; not explicit but clearly implied. There’s a fair amount of ‘strong’ language, and there’s a lot of drinking and joint-smoking. The subject matter is unlikely to be of interest to children or younger teens anyway.

It’s a film we will probably watch again in another six or seven years. I would recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of character-based drama with some quite hard-hitting issues.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews