Seeking funds for her orphanage in India, Isabelle travels to New York to meet Theresa, a wealthy benefactor. An invitation to attend a wedding ignites a series of events in which the past collides with the present as mysteries unravel.
After The Wedding is one last gender switch for the year. A remake of the 2006 Danish, foreign-language film of the same name that starred Mads Mikkelsen. This new iteration for English-speaking audiences is written and directed by Bart Freundlich, and stars his wife, Julianne Moore, alongside Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, and Abby Quinn. This is quite a difficult release to discuss without spoiling the big reveals, as they do begin reasonably early in the story. The switching of genders from the original film does add a twist to the expected tropes and generates some intrigue into the depth of drama that one can expect from the film. A tone that is further reiterated by the trailer.
Unfortunately, this is another case of false expectations. After The Wedding is an incredibly slow burn. It takes its time building up to a climax that never truly eventuates. A film so dry, that for an almost soap-opera level of melodramatic plot devices--it seems inconceivable--and yet the film is nearly devoid of all drama.
The lack of palatability of the film mostly comes down to the acting performances. Michelle Williams plays Isabel, our main protagonist, but her performance is one of the blandest, stoic displays I have seen of late. She is a brilliant actress and certainly is able to convey a lot through her eyes and facial expressions when she uses them, but her abilities are thoroughly underutilised. In an attempt to come across this strong idealistic and independent woman, Williams performance has taken it too far, making her character tedious and frustrating at times, and overall, an unlikeable character (despite how she is portrayed in the opening scenes).
These lifeless acting displays are also mirrored in Williams supporting cast, which leads to the diagnosis that this was a specific choice in direction from Freundlich. The consequence of having a team of characters that come across as lifeless and unlikeable is that the audience are met with a group of characters that--while they may understand actions taken--they are unable to connect with, relate to, or otherwise empathise and sympathise with.
Not just their performances, but the script itself fails to delve into the characters. Isabel (Williams), Oscar (Crudup), Theresa (Moore), and Grace (Quinn) all come with their own curiosities and questions. Again, I cannot go into specifics because of spoilers, but the reveals are intriguing and lead to many lines of questioning in the mind of the audience. There is rich backstory, motivations, and justifications that could be explored, but the script does little more than scrape at the surface of the issue. As mentioned earlier, Williams and co. are brilliant actors and can convey a wide range of emotions and thought processes through facial expressions, body movements, and mannerisms. It proves as an example of how little faith Freundlich has in the audience, as the performances explain the situation, but instead of trusting the audience to understand what is happening on the screen, the reveal is openly discussed in the dialogue in a repetitive fashion afterwards. It defeats the purpose of the audience thinking, encourages them to turn their brain off, and it drastically reduces the impact of the acting performances.
From a visual perspective, the direction is adequate, with the cinematography and colour grading creating warm and visually appealing environments, but this is not a scenic film. This is meant to be a tense drama, and yet the characters are written in a way that downplays the drama and removes the stakes to the point that not even an emotional breakdown from Julian Moore can draw my attention back.
If anything, After The Wedding has piqued my curiosity around the original 2006 version. The gender swap was poorly executed, failing to explore the characters through strong development arcs. Instead, we have a dry, unemotional film that ends without a payoff, and disregards all of the big questions that come up. Quite the wasted opportunity, and a disappointing release for Julianne Moore, who has wowed me earlier in the year with Gloria Bell.
After The Wedding is in cinemas from December 5th, 2019