After.Life ? 1 out of 5
Sometimes I add films to my Netflix queue (I dropped your
name Netflix, pay me) and I forget about it.
Maybe I read something about it and was interested at the time but not
interested enough to watch it immediately or maybe Netflix recommended it to be
based on my interests and viewing habits, I don?t know. However, there is usually a time when I
suddenly get a DVD in the mail and I look at it and say, ?Hmm, why did I add
this one to my queue?? After.Life is one
of those films?
 |
| "If someone takes you...I will find them and--you know what? You know the rest." |
After having an argument with her boyfriend, Anna Taylor
(Christina Ricci) gets into a car accident and wakes up in a funeral home. She is greeted by the man who runs the place,
Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson), and he informs her that she has died. Anna refuses to believe him and is convinced
that his claims of being able to speak to the dead are greatly exaggerated and,
in reality, she is just being held against her will and is still alive. Her boyfriend Paul (Justin Long) is inconsolable
over her death and, also, comes to believe that she is, indeed, alive and
there is something that Deacon isn?t telling him. Now he must try to save his beloved while
Anna tries to escape at the same time.
 |
| She seems pretty "whatevs" about being dead. |
Realistically, I think the reason I added this film to my
queue was because Liam Neeson was in it and I thought, ?Hey, he?s in a
horror/thriller film? I?ll watch
that.? Because, let?s be honest, I
didn?t add this film for the presence of Christina Ricci and Justin Long. After watching, I think I could have left
this on my queue for much longer and never would have really cared that much.
 |
| For me, Ricci peaked at Wednesday Addams. |
The story has potential to be interesting and, occasionally,
it is. However, the film wastes way too
much time to try and create a mystery that really didn?t need to be there and
fails at every turn to create conflict.
The story wants you to think there is a possibility that Anna is alive
but it is never convincing. The story
also wants you to think there is something unsavory about the character of
Eliot Deacon but it never works and it is the supporting cast that comes off
more nutso than he. Finally, the story
tries to have the whole scenario of Paul trying to find out if Anna is alive
and being held captive look like it makes total sense and be one of those times
where the crazy guy is right type of moments but it just never works. The whole time the film comes off silly
whenever Long?s character tries to act like Anna is still alive and he?s her
only hope. The film has some scenes
where he sees visions of Anna?s ghost and a little kid tells him that he saw
her alive but these events of ?proof? did little to make me sympathize with
Paul and, when you add in Long?s inability to not be annoying when he?s playing a
non-comedic role, this whole aspect of the film is either just tedious or
accidental comedy. Never once did I root
for Paul to find out the truth about his girlfriend and only found myself
saying, ?Wow, he just looks like a moron.?
 |
| The sex scene no one wanted to see... |
Acting wise, the film isn?t really that special. Ricci is painfully unconvincing with nearly
every line she delivers and, like I touched on previously, Justin Long is too
hard to take seriously in a non-comedic role.
His Jerry Lewis-level of delivery he gives off when his character is
hysterical is playing out more like bad comedy than anything else and, even
though it is completely accidental and exists only because Long isn?t that
talented of an actor, it makes for a striking change in tone of the film.
 |
| "Thanks for visit...I'm going to stand here and make sure your tail lights work." |
 |
| The score would greatly improve if Neeson just cold- clocked Long. |
The film also does a tremendously poor job of developing any
and every character in the film. Ricci?s
character of Anna Taylor is the only one who really seems to be growing (which
is amusing since her character just died) throughout the story. Paul is a one-dimensional character who works
at a corporate job and acts in the most stereotypical way of grief (read that
as he is seen drinking a lot?why express how he is in pain when you can just
take the short route and show him getting smashed?). Even the funeral director Eliot Deacon, who
seems to have the ability to converse with the dead, is given no real
attention or is really given any meaningful insight to who he is, why he can do
what he does, or the roots to why he?s kind of a dick to the dead. The film even decides to add in a little
conflict between Anna?s mother (played by Celia Weston) and Paul and it feels
like there is some serious shit between the two but the film, ultimately, does
abso-fucking-nothing with it. It end up
making a film that becomes very boring and dragging because I ended up watching
a bunch of characters with no real development bumble their way through a story
that also has no real development going on with it.
 |
| Dear Script Writers...people often mishandle their grief through means outside of alcohol. Just saying... |
The only real shining light the film has is the fact that
Neeson is doing a fantastic job in his role.
Yes, his character isn?t feathered out or really developed but Neeson is
acting the fuck out of it. The only
problem is that his delivery is so good that it is making all the other
performances look even worse. His
exchanges with Ricci are almost painful to endure because she looks like she?s
phoning it in while he is giving it his all.
 |
| Don't let the weird face and the flowers fool you. He's Liam "Freakin'" Neeson... he can still kill you in a variety of ways. Or at least his movies lead me to believe he can. Either way, I wouldn't risk it. |
The premise for After.Life could have easily worked but the
story feels like a first draft and, aside from Liam Neeson, the acting is
pretty bad. While I?m a fan of Neeson,
his talent alone isn?t enough to make a thrill-less thriller work and this film
just sinks to the depths of the forgotten for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment