BEFORE AND AFTER

 

THREE STARS – Thought-provoking

 

 

       BEFORE AND AFTER is a study of the absence of ethics in a modern family’s life.  Though tragedy strikes most if not all of our lives, it is our spiritual faith, transcendent beliefs and their ethical absolutes which see us through the storm.

       “Let’s save your life first, and then worry about your soul.”  

       With these words, a young teenager who is accused of committing murder is given the advice by his father to lie.  

       Rather than supporting his son in taking responsibility for his actions,  the father believes that it is better to jeopardize, if not sacrifice,  the soul of his son.

       In a varied and thoughtful presentation of moral choices and their spiritual and relational results, BEFORE AND AFTER focuses on how a family reacts to tragedy.

       BEFORE the tragedy, the Ryans were a fairly normal Massachusetts middle-class, small-town family.

       AFTER the tragedy, the Ryans were no longer what they were, but are struggling to find their way into what they are becoming.

       Ben Ryan (Liam Neeson) is a father of deep passions and commitments.  He is committed to his family and his son.  But we soon discover that his commitment to his family is his highest value, a value for which he is willing to lie, destroy evidence and risk the integrity and spirituality of son and family.

       Carolyn Ryan (Meryl Streep) is a placating mother who excuses the angry and prideful actions of her husband long before the tragedy strikes.  Now, with a husband rampaging through the integrity of the family, she has to make a choice:  Will she join her husband in his convoluted ethic, or will she choose to be honest and true?

       Jacob Ryan (Edward Furlong) is a secretive, sexually active high-schooler who has been seeing a volatile young woman on the sly.  When, in a moment of anger and frustration an accident occurs, he panics and flees his home.

       Judith Ryan (Julia Weldon) is the daughter and the narrator of the story and is painfully present yet virtually invisible in the family as she experiences  her father’s dishonest and unethical behaviors.

       The genius of the film is in its weaving the tangled web these unethical choices produce.

       The web begins with a father’s pride.  As an artist with a wife who supports him, he is hard on his son and demands he carry his own weight.  The web continues with the acquiescence of the mother who justifies her husband’s temper and pride by excusing them as love for his son.  The web connects as the son secretly becomes entangled with an immoral and volatile girlfriend with whom he fights in half rage and half self-defense.  The web thickens when the son runs, the father destroys evidence, the mother goes along with the illegality and dishonesty, and the son is captured.  The web expands as the services of a completely amoral criminal defense lawyer is hired to defend the son.  The web darkens as the deceit and lies become the fabric of the family and begin to destroy the self-respect and integrity of each person in the family.  Finally, the web is broken when the daughter, the mother and then the son can no longer live with who they are becoming morally and spiritually.

       Though there is a complete absence of any sort of spiritual support for the family, either in the form of pastor, or church, or friends, or family, the inherent awareness that the family itself is being lost becomes a call to obey the absolute of honesty.

       What began as a family dysfunction grew into a family tragedy.  Though the dysfunction itself laid the foundation for the tragedy, the real destruction occurred when the family  did not have the ethical strength to deal with the problem.  Since the family had no point of reference beyond itself, no spirituality, no community of faith, no extended family, then the family was lost on a tossing sea with no anchor or supporting tugs.

       Ethical standards of honesty, integrity, humility and accountability are provided to us as supportive anchors which hold us firm in the tossing waves.

 

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