After.Life (2010)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Or is it "turbid"? I think in this case, both apply. The pace is nothing short of funereal. What is the underlying theme here? Is it a horror flick? A heavy philosophical treatise on the meaning of life and death? Did anyone really know? It's not clear whether the writer ever had a grip on things and watched it get lost in the film's execution, or whether it remained this muddled at every stage. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when this idea was pitched. How was Liam Neeson corralled into participating in this unfocused mess? It really is, as one reviewer suggested, a episode of Twilight Zone that runs three times normal length and compensates by showing us lots of Ms. Ricci's flesh. She's lovely, but I'm not sure she's worth that extra hour.

As it's own story, I like Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo's "After.Life". As a movie, not as much. Both Christina Ricci and Liam Neeson put on great performances: her Anna sinks into confusion about her life (or death?), while his Eliot comes across as the typical guy whose nice demeanor might be hiding something. The rest of the cast doesn't equal them, and despite the unique plot, much of the movie seems like stuff that I've seen before.And then there's the cast, or what it implies. Despite Ricci's versatile career, I still remember her as Wednesday Addams. Liam Neeson used to be known for serious roles - Oskar Schindler and Jean Valjean - but now stars in a bunch of dumb action flicks. I don't know if Justin Long has a most famous role, but I always remember him from "Jeepers Creepers". Malachy McCourt is the brother of "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt, and ran for governor of New York on the Green Party ticket in 2006. And then there's Alice Drummond, who's played supporting roles in a variety of movies ("Ghostbusters", "Awakenings", "In & Out", "Doubt", to name just a few).So, it's an OK, not great movie.

I watched this in a kind of morbid sense of dread way. I have always found the notion of how the professionals handle and deal with the dead very upsetting. The idea of someone stripping and handling and generally disposing of a body and all the associated indignities truly repulses me. I found the nudity of Christina Ricci a little exploitative it could have been more balanced with the character of Justin Long being similarly exposed. Also I found some of the lines that the young boy is involved with a little distasteful. I don't really think it will do a lot for that young child to have to deal with the grim and harsh realities of death so graphically. I was always a little concerned with the plots of "two and a half men" and the ugly sleazy aspects that the youngster had to deal with, and now as an adult he has discussed that it did have a detrimental affect on him. The film in it's way is fascinating, but not for the faint hearted or overly sensitive.

"After.Life" is a movie that begins with a bad acting from the main actors, which made me think it would be a total mess. Afterwards, it turned out to be just a regular picture. The main controversy in this awkward story involves life and death; filmmakers built situations that made spectator curious whether the girl was really dead or not. That would've been a great idea, if it hasn't been used in lots of other movies before 2009. Also, from the get go we're used with the idea that Anna is dead, and the outcome isn't any different from that, so there is no surprise for the spectator-- which is important in movies that deal with hereafter and mystery. The plot is very slow-paced, and I believe the biggest part of the audience won't be patient enough to reach it's ending. Also, considering this film has been labeled as an horror back when released, I believe the audience must have felt cheated, since there is no gore, tension or anything that may frighten the spectator. For fans of the subject, I suggest you pictures that are way better, like 2000's "Waking the Dead" or 2008's "Passengers", and I'm not mentioning "The Others" or "The Sixth Sense" because everybody out there has seen them at least one time in their lives.