When You Finish Saving The World Review - Promising
The perpetually picky Evelyn (Julianne Moore) oversees a shelter for people and families fleeing perilous circumstances. She is in control of her professional life, but her relationship with her teenage son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard) is deteriorating with each abrupt exchange. Ziggy is a conceited aspiring musician that prefers to organise his livestreams than engaging with people in his environment. As they compete for the attention of others, Evelyn and Ziggy quickly reveal to have more in common than either of them could have imagined while having quite different worldviews. Kyle (Billy Bryk), a young man living at the shelter with his mother, is the focus of Evelyn's attention, while Ziggy makes an effort to seem more political in order to win over his smart classmate and crush, Lila (Alisha Boe).
The voyage of Ziggy is less clear. Wolfhard perfectly captures the singer's arrogant and ignorant nature, but it will be difficult for viewers not to sneer at the things he says. By purposefully establishing him in this way, Eisenberg creates the foundation for a story arc in which Ziggy explores his surroundings. But the script itself seems to be missing a few phases, regrettably. Even while the film attempts to convey that Ziggy has changed, it never really feels like he has. When You Finish Saving the World doesn't stay long enough to find out what he is on the verge of, if anything, he is on the edge of something. It undervalues Ziggy's persona and gives viewers the feeling that something is missing.
There are moments of genuine emotion and potential throughout the film. The flaws that Evelyn and Ziggy share are vividly highlighted in a scene involving them as well as their father and husband Roger (Jay O. Sanders), who makes up the third member of their family. Eisenberg also expertly choreographs two pivotal clashes so that the conflicting plotlines of When You Finish Saving the World come together in a natural and rewarding way. But after that, the story rushes to its conclusion without pausing to reflect on the lessons its main characters have discovered. The crowd is kept at a safe distance.
What the viewer is left with is a film that tries to evoke strong emotions but falls short. Eisenberg does a fantastic job with the build-up and, in a way, even the ending. When You Finish Saving the World is at its greatest when Moore and Wolfhard are on screen together because their performances give their characters dimension. Eisenberg's tugging on the strings holding the two together is when the movie is at its best, but it doesn't do this enough. When You Finish Saving the World isn't as good as it could be because there are sections missing from it.