This week I’m happy to announce that I’ve written another guest post for the Doom Generation movie review site, an experience I’m finding thoroughly rewarding of late. In fact, I can’t watch a movie anymore without thinking I should be reviewing it for them.
True to form I’m grumbling again but I’ll leave you to decide if it’s justified:
AFTER.LIFE
When I first read about After.Life I was very excited. On paper it was an easy sell, Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci and Jason Long are the three main stars that should have made this movie phenomenal. Plus the blurb had everything going for it: A young woman caught between life and death… and a funeral director who appears to have the gift of transitioning the dead, but might just be intent on burying her alive…
So what if IMDB only gave it six stars? Liam Neeson gives start quality to anything, especially after Taken, right? Not right. Wrong in fact!
This was another one of those super promising movies which left me feeling cheated and used by the end. Though it was well acted, I was left longing for a better story once again. It’s very sad when a movie is full of potential but sacrifices plot for the benefit of visuals.
It starts with a young couple, Paul and Anna, having sex. Half way through the deed Anna stops having fun and goes to take a shower. Her boyfriend protests that she used to enjoy it, but now suddenly doesn’t anymore. Why? We’re left to wonder. How is this plot going to thicken and how will this affect their relationship? To add more spice to the mix, she goes to take a shower and has a nose bleed. Big hint that something is wrong with her health, right? Right? After all, each scene in a movie serves as an indispensable tale telling device which propels the plot forward. Or is that just me?
The following evening Paul takes Anna out to dinner and after a botched wedding proposal she gets into her car and drives away during a rainstorm, upset that he’s just broken up with her. Despite the “what the…?” exclamations you’re all probably making, this part was actually done quite well, which is a testament to the skills of the cast. Next thing we know Anna shows up in a funeral home and Paul has to find out from her mother that she was killed in a car accident. Though he tries to see her, he is denied access by the Mortician/Funeral director Mr Deacon, played by Neeson, on the grounds that he is not really family. He goes to the police station to ask for their help (being as he is a lawyer) and is turned away, but not before seeing Anna’s wrecked and blood spattered car, implying that she was quite seriously impaled in the accident… Read the rest HERE for the spoiler and sarcasm enhanced version.
Romina Nicolaides Author 