After Hours With a Kid

Before I Disappear is almost a good movie, but it can’t escape its origins, the Academy Award-winning short film Curfew. Like Curfew, Before I Disappear is written, directed by and stars Shawn Christensen. It likewise features Curfew’s child star, Fatima Ptacek, as Sophia.

But Curfew’s 19 minutes worked for it, while Before I Disappear’s 93 minutes work against it; Christensen hasn’t figured out how to fill the new 74 minutes with as compelling a story as screw-up Richie (Christensen) caring for his estranged niece while his mother is unable to. When Richie and Sophia are doing their thing together—going to a bowling alley, talking about art—the movie works.

When Christensen brings in other plot threads—a dead woman in a club bathroom; a horrible job; drug dealers threatening to kill him—it feels more like the movie is looking for a way to pad itself into a feature. That’s too bad, because Christensen is a fine actor, at least in this part, and Ptacek is his equal. Emmy Rossum, as Sophia’s mother and Richie’s sister, isn’t quite up to snuff as a life-hardened woman, but her part isn’t punched up much beyond plot device. Christensen has the goods; he just needs to find a more appropriate feature-length story.

 BEFORE I DISAPPEAR

Directed by Shawn Christensen

With Christensen, Ptacek and Rossum

Jean Cocteau Cinema

NR

93 min.