![]() ![]() That unusual premise is soon overwhelmed by the romance.įor a time The Aftermath works as a promising melodrama in a setting worthy of Downton Abbey. The Luberts are banished to attic rooms instead of being sent to a camp – an early sign of Lewis’ goal of reconciliation – while Lubert waits for a hearing which can clear him of complicity with the Nazis, a standard process. Stationed in Germany, he allowed the owners of his requisitioned house to share the space, just as Lewis decides that Lubert (as he is called throughout the film) and his teenage daughter, Freda, can stay. The film is based on Rhidian Brook’s 2013 novel, loosely inspired by his grandfather’s true story. Why the Oscars ignore the best films of the year.Lords of Chaos: The grisly film that has caused outrage.A conventional period drama, The Aftermath is pretty to look at, easy to watch, but disappointingly lifeless. Unfortunately, their love affair feels just that predictable, and the more potent issues of guilt, redemption and forgiveness are underdeveloped. You don’t throw two stars as gorgeous as Knightley and Skarsgård into a film together without expecting romance. The answer to that last question is obviously yes. How will they deal with the Germans, the vanquished enemy whose bombing of London killed their young son? Will they repair their marriage, now as chilly as the snowy landscape in which her train arrives? Will she fall into bed with the handsome German widower, Stefan Lubert (Alexander Skarsgård), an architect whose grand house the British have requisitioned for the Morgans’ use? Either way, it’s an untidy, unfocused and unsatisfying thriller that won’t gild anybody’s resume.The characters in The Aftermath face intriguing dilemmas. Four months after the end of World War Two, Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in Hamburg to join her husband, Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British military officer. ![]() Perhaps the filmmakers’ grasp exceeded their reach, or maybe neither screenwriter nor director could see what a mess it was before the camera rolled. But Gorman gets lost in trying to rationally explain all of this while losing track of all that.Ī savvy viewer’s first eyerolls turn up long before Kevin’s “Pump the brakes” crack, and continue apace through the thoroughly conventional climax. “Aftermath” plays around with the mistrust in the aftermath of an affair and ghosts that horror convention suggests linger in the places where their lives ended. Screenwriter Dakota Gorman tries to have her horror, and her psychological thriller, too, and doesn’t let “plausible” slow down her type-type-typing. It’s a seriously cluttered tale, as far as excess characters are concerned.Īnd yes, you can tell from the extensive cast that some effort was made to trick the viewer, or at least throw us off the scent and keep us from guessing where this is going. Paula Garcés is the sister of the previous owner and Alexander Bedria is her husband. Sharif Atkins plays the skeptical cop, Britt Baron is Natalie’s easily-spooked sister, Diana Hopper is the cute and flirtatious coed Kevin shares a class with as he heads back to school, But he’s wondering about the strange things going on, the bizarre subscriptions that turn up at their door, the firebomb somebody tosses into their car. ![]() “Pump the BRAKES on the melodrama!” her husband barks. And Natalie starts seeing things and hearing other things, a “slender, pale” figure slipping into the house, using the restroom. They move in, their dog starts whimpering at closed doors and bumps in the night. Despite her doubts, the fact that he didn’t consult her before starting the process, and despite the “disturbing” history of the house, Natalie goes along with this “fresh start.” That suicide wasn’t just a guy eating a pistol. He’s quit college, taken up working with a biohazard crime-scene cleanup team ( Travis Coles and Jamie Kaler) prone to making wisecracks about a suicide victim creating “a Jackson Pollock on the wall” of their latest job.Īnd that’s when Kevin gets a really good deal on a house. She’s struggling to get her designer dress shop open. Greene plays Natalie, a clothing designer struggling to get her marriage to Kevin ( Shawn Ashmore of TV’s “The Rookie” and “The Ruins” and “Darkness Falls”) back on track after a “betrayal.” If you can make it to the ridiculously drawn-out and absurd finale - and Rotten Tomatoes has its running time wrong, it’s close to two hours - you’ll witness a good actress giving her all even when things go from straining credulity to nonsense. “Aftermath” is a sluggish, convoluted domestic horror thriller that can’t be rescued by a fierce turn by its leading lady, “Twilight” alumna Ashley Greene. ![]()
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