Okay, let’s address that question straight away. If I had to guess, I would say my theater had about 50-60 people (about 45-55 more than I expected). With the way After ends, it’s begging the audience to take it seriously. But it misses the mark once again, eliciting legitimate laughter from the majority of those in attendance. It’s nothing I’ve ever experienced before, and yet the laughter did not feel out of place. The move does nothing to earn our respect, and the ending falls completely flat. So yes, it’s a bad thing. But how did we get there?
After tells the story of innocent and naive Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) as she heads off to her first semester of college. She leaves behind her single mother (how did they drag Selma Blair into this mess?) and a loving – if obnoxious – boyfriend. Noah, who is still a senior in high school. She soon meets Hardin (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), who is pretty much exactly what you would expect someone named Hardin to be like. But in case the name doesn’t give it away, his tattoos might just be the dumbest collection of body art you’ll ever see. And on top of that, he speaks almost exclusively in clichés disguised as deep and romantic sentiments. You also know he’s cool because he owns not one, but two, Ramones t-shirts.
After some wannabe-cute “will they won’t they” moments, Tessa finally caves as Hardin wears her down like Andy Bernard.
Hardin’s (barely there) bad boy image awakens something in Tessa. She breaks up with Noah (not a spoiler because this happening basically defines the word obvious) and begins a whirlwind romance with Hardin.
After tries to present a serious, introspective look at the real ups and downs of young love and using your young adult years to find your true self. But instead, we get a movie caked in tired clichés and “negative” actions that don’t really have any sort of consequences, good or bad. Part of the problem is that the movie leans heavily into its PG-13 rating. After implies almost everything, while showing next to nothing. While I want to admire that decision, it takes it too far. Tessa’s (lack of) sexual experience is a fairly important part of her story. But by leaving everything up to the audience to interpret, it actually takes away a lot of her agency. The scenes end and cut away so quickly, she barely has a chance to say yes or no to anything.
To be fair, when Tessa and Hardin do finally sleep together, it’s made very clear that’s what’s happening. But it was too little, too late. And part of how we know is Hardin hilariously shoves a condom into the frame and asks, “Are you sure?” I’m all for showing explicit consent, no problem there. But it was handled so poorly and awkwardly, it completely ruined the scene.
Now as bad as this movie is, I do feel kind of bad giving it such a low score. And that’s because of both Langford and Fiennes-Tiffin. Both have limited acting experience (you might recognize Hero from his role as young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince).
And that inexperience shows. But you can still tell there’s a certain level of talent, or at least potential, there for both. And to their credit, it’s wholly apparent they’re both trying here. But neither the script nor the story give them anything to work with. It would take world class acting to get even a marginal performance from either of these roles. But even excellent acting could have raised it up so much.
Ultimately, the script and the story are what destroy the movie. The complete lack of creativity and originality are legitimately shocking. The dialogue might as well have been pulled directly from short story romances written by high school seniors. The plot “twists” are either predictable, inconsequential, or both. The movie gives you no reason to care about any of the characters and the choices they make. And if you don’t care about either of those, it’s near impossible to care about the movie.
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