BEFORE SEVEN | Omeleto

A young woman babysits two British sisters, then discovers something’s wrong. BEFORE SEVEN is used with permission from Ray Sisters. Learn more at . Sage is a young American woman working in London as a babysitter. She gets called in to watch over two little girls, who are delightful to babysit. But as the day wears into the evening, Sage starts to feel something amiss, as small signs and unreturned messages add up to a more ominous meaning. But when the girls’ parent fails to return at the end of Sage’s shift, Sage’s protective instincts towards her young charges take over as she attempts to get to the bottom of the looming crisis. But what she discovers is much more surprising than what anyone thought. Co-directed by Austin and Westin Ray from a script written by Westin, this short drama has a gentle start, as a cheerful, competent Sage enters the world of the little girls she’s tasked to watch. Emmeline and Abigail are charming, smart and well-behaved, and Sage herself instantly telegraphs a solicitous warmth and trustworthiness Their mother, however, seems distracted and anxious, but that tension is easily overlooked as Sage spends time with the little girls, making them meals and playing with them. Together, they make a comfortable bubble of security, and the storytelling luxuriates in this atmosphere, with an eye for sweet details and gestures of care and comfort. Sage and the girls bond together, and it’s easy to see why Sage cares for them so much, even though she has just met them. But visually, the film also takes advantage of the cool, slightly alienating modernist feel of the girls’ apartment -- one where the high-end range proves befuddling to operate -- with skewed angles that feel slightly “off.“ Though Emmeline and Abigail are innately sweet, there’s something not quite right in the emotional atmosphere of the home. These and other signs of disquiet creep into the film, skillfully shifting it from a naturalistic portrait of a small ad-hoc family into a subtle mystery full of suspense and uncertainty. As the hour of Sage’s shift ending comes and goes and their mother is nowhere to be found, Sage and viewers begin to fill in the pieces. Is the girl’s mother having an affair? Has she abandoned the family? What is Sage’s moral responsibility in this situation? Sage refuses to abandon the girls, and actor Meaghan Martin -- whom audiences may know from Disney’s CAMP ROCK show or from MEAN GIRLS 2 -- deftly plays rock-solid decency and kindness. As the film’s moral center, she’s what we and the girls hold onto when the truth comes out. The reveal of BEFORE SEVEN is, in many ways, less salacious than the build-up. But it’s also oddly sadder, perhaps hinting at how easy it is to outsource or even eschew the responsibility for children. The fuller backstory begs for a longer narrative treatment, but it would be easy to surmise how easy it is to lose sight of Emmeline and Abigail in the bustle of a busy, grown-up light. But the film also offers a glimpse of what it looks like when children are collectively cared for by a larger community outside the nuclear family. Sage offers a safe place to land for her charges during a tense situation, which is more important than ever when it comes to an increasingly fraught, complex world.