Mark Reviews Movies: ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 16, 2019

Keeping a vital piece of information about a character hidden until a certain point in a story is a risky move. It doesn't quite pay off in All Creatures Here Below, which presents a couple of characters, who clearly are troubled and in turmoil, as they make increasingly terrible decisions.

The move on the part of screenwriter David Dastmalchian to keep the underlying cause of this pain a secret until the third act is odd. It seems like an attempt to elicit sympathy for its characters at the last possible moment.

The movie, though, also wants us to sympathize with Gensan (Dastmalchian) and Ruby (Karen Gillan), who live together as a couple in a cramped city apartment before going on the run for assorted reasons, well before their apparently defining back story is revealed. That we do to any extent is a testament to the central performances, as well as Dastmalchian's ability to create a scenario in which every bad decision possesses, to some degree, a rational motive behind it.

Near the start, Gensan loses his job and bets the last of his income at an underground cockfight. He wins but kills the money man, who attempts to flee from the cops without paying out the winnings.

Meanwhile, Ruby, who has some undefined mental or developmental issues, has taken a crying, unattended baby from a neighbor. With the baby sleeping in a cardboard box, Gensan is unaware of the kidnapping until the couple is on the road out of town. They try to make a life of their new circumstances.

Even before receiving an overt explanation of what has brought these two together and to this dire situation, Dastmalchian and Gillan provide a genuine sense of the hurt and desperation within these characters, as well as an uncomfortable comprehension of how attached they are to each other. There's also a level of detachment from the reality of their circumstances, which is vital to how they think they can pull off an escape from consequences.

By the end of All Creatures Here Below, we understand why these characters are the way they are. It changes the specifics of the main characters and their relationship, but it also seems like a last-ditch attempt to garner sympathy. In other words, the movie ends with a feeling that it never fully trusted the strength of these characters as they are.

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