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Poster for I Used to Be Darker

I Used to Be Darker

2013 · 1h 30m Drama
Directed by Matthew Porterfield

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Overview

When Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But Kim and Bill have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby, just home from her first year of college. A story of family revelations, people finding each other and letting each other go, looking for love where they’ve found it before and, when that doesn’t work, figuring out where they might find it next.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
80%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Porterfield's film doesn't offer much in the way of plot, but the ways the characters bounce off one another in small spaces are precisely observed, and the actors have a lot of soul ...

Adam Nayman, Globe and Mail
Fresh

Unfolds like a music album, with emotive songs supplying information that doesn't need repeating in the lean screenplay, which the director co-wrote with Amy Belk.

Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Rotten

The couple, both musicians, are in the midst of a bitter breakup, and Porterfield frequently trains the camera on one or the other as each performs his melancholy tunes; this stops the narrative dead in its tracks.

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Fresh

The visual style of third-time director Matthew Porterfield ("Putty Hill," "Hamilton") is emphatically lyrical, beginning with a widescreen shot of a Maryland Ferris wheel that suggests a celebration of Americana.

John Hartl, Seattle Times
Fresh

Nuanced performances by the non-professional cast and a haunting soundtrack help fill in the deliberate narrative gaps.

Peter Keough, Boston Globe

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