Billy Crystal’s Psychological Thriller Before Is So Goofy, It’s Accidentally Hilarious

As a cinema devotee with over three decades of movie-watching under my belt, I must say that Billy Crystal’s return to television after a seven-year hiatus has been eagerly awaited by many, myself included. However, after watching Apple TV+’s “Before,” I’m left wondering if it might have been better if he had stayed away just a little longer.

As a passionate cinephile, I must admit that it’s quite rare these days for actors to take a break from our screens. Stars like Nicole Kidman are constantly gracing us with new shows and films every few months. Samuel L. Jackson, on the other hand, has been incredibly prolific this year, with five film roles under his belt, not to mention his role in the latest Peacock docudrama “Fight Night”. However, it’s the restraint of a performer like Billy Crystal that feels surprisingly refreshing. With the exception of voice acting and guest appearances, Crystal has been absent from our small screens since 2015, when FX decided to cancel his and Josh Gad’s showbiz sendup “The Comedians” after just one lackluster season. (It’s been nine years now, and the unstreamable comedy has essentially vanished from memory.) So, you can imagine my excitement at Crystal’s return to television, as executive producer and star of the Apple TV+ thriller “Before”. It truly feels like a special event!

Looking forward to its premiere on October 25, I regretfully admit that while it might not be the absolute worst show of 2024, “Before” could turn out to be this year’s greatest letdown. Produced by Sarah Thorp, known for A&E’s brief-lived 2016 spin-off of “The Omen,” “Damien,” she attributes the series concept to Crystal, the show unfortunately falls short on almost every front. It lacks emotional depth and, spanning over 10 monotonous episodes, becomes excruciatingly dull—a psychological thriller that provides neither psychological insight nor excitement. The plot is both predictable and preposterous. The dialogue is a series of cliches. Despite boasting a talented cast, the acting is uniformly stiff, suggesting subpar direction might be the culprit. Scenes intended to induce tension and fear, featuring characters struggling with supernatural influences, instead had me laughing out loud. It’s the most glaring instance of Apple’s penchant for overvaluing misguided celebrity projects since the service debuted with the dismal, post-apocalyptic series “See,” starring Jason Momoa.

The story unfolds as a polished version of Jonathan Glazer’s 2004 drama ‘Birth’, laced with unexpected twists reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s early works. In this narrative, Crystal portrays Dr. Eli Adler, a child psychiatrist grappling with the loss of his wife, Lynn (portrayed by Judith Light, who seems underutilized), who passed away from cancer. Eli often perceives Lynn as a spectral figure moving around their home, or perhaps just in his mind; regardless, she remains an influential presence in his life.

In the series, as Eli collaborates with Noah, whose terrifying hallucinations of dripping black water and slimy creatures make him aggressive, it becomes clear that Noah’s sudden arrival at Eli’s doorstep was no mere coincidence. Their lives are intertwined. This is how Eli expresses it in one of the show’s amusing, unintentional outbursts: “We’re connected. We’re connected!” Eli has also experienced unsettling visions. On his refrigerator hangs a picture of an old farmhouse, and he can’t figure out how it ended up there. Interestingly, Noah, a gifted artist, has drawn the same building. And it seems that all of this is connected to Lynn, who wrote and illustrated children’s books.

The series develops a pattern of alternating between suspenseful scares and dramatic fainting spells, with Eli and his growing apprehensive associate Jane (played by Hope Davis who isn’t given much to do) frequently using technical terms like ‘conversion disorder’, ‘mass psychogenic illness’, and ‘radical exposure therapy’. It seems as if they believe that scientific terminology can salvage a plot that is becoming increasingly absurd.

One useful, if trite, function of trauma in fiction is to give characters depth. So it’s doubly disappointing that Before doesn’t even manage to use the trope effectively to that end. Noah has no personality or backstory to speak of. Denise exists solely to fret over Noah. Jane is here to mark how far Eli eventually strays from the norms of his profession. Even Eli is a cipher; the show gives little sense of what he was like before Lynn’s death plunged him into the doldrums of grief. An aggrieved adult daughter (Maria Dizzia) alludes to his history of prioritizing his work over his family, but that detail leads nowhere. A subplot in which an officious real estate agent (Miriam Shor) prepares to sell Eli’s home is fully inane. The best stories flow organically from their characters; here, those characters are nothing more than pawns in a clumsy allegory.

It’s surprising that a company like Apple, known for its high-quality streaming content, might release a subpar show without its usual quality standard, given that “Before” has always been a reflection of Apple’s approach to streaming. With a substantial amount of iPhone earnings and venturing into the TV business, Apple appears to give creative freedom to A-list stars with their passion projects. While this strategy can lead to successful productions, such as the timely tech thriller “Severance,” it also frequently results in shows that seem promising but end up being dull (“Truth Be Told”), absurd (“The Morning Show”), heavy-handed (“The New Look”), or pretentious (“Mr. Corman”). Thankfully, in an era of Hollywood budget cuts, it’s comforting to have a streamer that continues to invest in talent. Now, if only Apple could ensure the ideas attached to those big names are also of top quality.

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2024-10-25 05:06