If given the choice between Chris Evans action star, or the dramatic actor, I will take the latter.  As much as I enjoyed him played Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), I never totally understood that choice.  I was used to seeing him in romantic comedies like The Nanny Diaries (2007) or What’s Your Number (2011).  I even appreciated him as a villain in Knives Out (2019).  It is not that one needs to be type-casted.  He has the range to pull off any role.  I am just telling you what I prefer, and I like him best as not Captain America.  Still, it is his MCU stuff that, for better or worse, the viewing public knows him best.  Admittedly, this has influenced my knowledge of his work.  That is why I had no idea about Before We Go (2014), which he also directed, or if I did know about it, I had forgotten about it.  Either way, I am glad I gave it a shot.

In Before We Go, Chris Evans plays Nick Vaughan, a trumpet player who has come to New York to audition with a jazz band.  The night before this is to take place, he is in Grand Central Station playing for pocket change and avoiding going to the wedding reception for his old friend Danny (Mike Kassen).  The reason Nick does not want to attend is because his ex-girlfriend Hannah Dempsey (Emma Fitzpatrick) is there with another guy.  I can empathize with you, my friend.  As the train depot is closing for the night, a young woman runs past him, dropping her cell phone.  She does not notice this, despite him calling after her, because she is trying to catch the last trip to Boston.  She fails.  This affords him the opportunity to catch up with her and hand her back her broken cell.  Her not making it on time for her train is only the latest in a terrible night highlighted by the fact that her purse had been stolen while she was in a bar.  Sensing a person in need, Nick tries to get her a cab, but the credit card he gives for the exorbitant price is declined.  Thus, he offers to help her find her purse.  It is at this point that she finally introduces herself, though at first she says her name is Carrie.  Only after they go back to the bar and get a lead from the bartender as to the bag’s location does she say her real name: Brooke Dalton (Alice Eve).  You cannot blame her for the prevarication.  Anyway, he goes with her to retrieve the purse because it is in a bad neighborhood, but gets punched in the face for his efforts when the police show up after Brooke calls them.  She does this after she calls her husband.  During their conversation he tells his wife that he will be home the following morning instead of the next day as was the original plan for his business trip.  Problems are mounting for Brooke as she has no money, identification, phone, and now may be losing her marriage.  We will get to why this last part is important in a moment.  Being the nice guy that Nick is, he decides to try and get her the necessary money she needs to catch an overnight bus back to Boston before morning arrives.  Despite his own cell being out of battery, he manages to contact Danny, who agrees to help raise some funds for him.  Yet, Danny, in his inebriated state, gives Nick the wrong address.  Brooke and Nick arrive at some kind of party that is expecting a band, and he cons them into agreeing to a portion of the fee.  Unfortunately, the real musicians get there before Brooke and Nick can collect, so it is out the door.  Before they leave the hotel where this takes place, Brooke manages to call a friend of hers to retrieve a letter from her house that is addressed to her husband.  Feeling like the problem is solved, she decides to help Nick with what has been troubling him, namely whether to go to the reception and face Hannah.  Brooke says she will pose as his girlfriend.  When they get there, the exchange does not go well.  All of Nick’s regrets resurface, and though Brooke gives him to morale boost to not give up initially, the extra effort brings him the disquieting information that Hannah is pregnant.  Still, he walks away with the knowledge that it is truly over with Hannah.  To kill more time, Brooke and Nick see a psychic that they happen upon for a reading, an old seer named Harry (John Collum).  To him, Brooke and Nick are a couple, but he has a lot of insightful things to say to Brooke.  It leads her to call her friend once more, only to learn that she had been unable to retrieve the letter.  Upon leaving Harry’s, she finally opens up about what is so important about her returning to Boston before her husband.  She had learned that he had been having an affair.  Though she thought it was over, before his recent business trip she found an email from the same woman.  Thus, she had left a note saying she was leaving him enclosed with her wedding ring.  The problem is that she loves him all the same, and is feeling regret over her actions.  A little later, Nick is trying to cheer her up by telling him that he will understand, but her guilt is too heavy.  Instead, she tries to flee, saying she is going to go to the airport and fly to Indiana to stay with her mother.  He stops her, pointing out the impossibility of such a venture without identification and money, and telling her that running will not solve her problems.  Once things calm down, they go back to the hotel room Nick is sharing with Danny, finding it deserted.  There is a kiss, but she regrets it.  Instead, they spend the rest of the night talking.  In the morning, resolved to have it out with her husband, Nick takes Brooke back to Grand Central Station and with one last kiss, they depart.  The last thing we see is Brooke on the train, having used her ticket from the previous night, looking at a comment card from the hotel and turning it over, but the scene cuts out before it is revealed what is said.

My theory about what is not shown at the end of Before We Go is Nick’s phone number.  Though this last part is a little unsatisfactory, it underscores one of the things I liked about the film: what you do not see.  There is an obvious attraction between Brooke and Nick, though in a different movie they probably would have had sex.  I like to think that there is hope for them getting together because of the feelings they have for one another, and because her husband does not seem like the greatest guy.  Additionally, I empathize with both of them on an emotional and spiritual level.  Even the Catholic Church will tell you that infidelity is grounds for separation from a spouse.  What I like about Brooke is that she still loves her husband despite her his faults.  That does not mean they should be together, but to deny those feelings would be wrong.  It speaks to something Nick says about how you cannot let the people you love determine how you love.  Brooke feels duty bound to stay with her husband, and that is commendable.  At the same time, there are different ways of loving people.  The important thing is that you do love.  You see this with Nick as well.  It can be applied to what transpires with Hannah, but I would like to talk about it in relation to Brooke.  At every turn, he shows her heroic virtue, and that is a Christian trait.  What I admire most, though, is his willingness to step into another person’s mess.  To be fair, he is open about wanting to be a hero, but to his credit, he sticks with it.  Jesus did the same for people, even for those who initially rejected him.  He made a positive difference in people’s lives by doing so, as does Nick for Brooke.  If only more people behaved accordingly, what a world this would be.

Before We Go tugged on a lot of emotional heart strings for me.  Still, I think the message it has of leaping into something out of love for another is a valid one for all.  Then again, one could say Captain America would do the same thing.  If that is your preferred vehicle for such messages, that is fine, too.  For me, I will take this one.