The premise of after.life is really intriguing. When you see it play out in the film, it’s very thought provoking and you will find yourself asking yourself a lot of questions during and after the film. This is a messed up and twisted movie about the transition from living to dead…to the afterlife. Based in a massive funeral home of Eliot Deacon, you join Anna Taylor as she confronts the idea of her losing her life. The story begins while Anna, played by Christina Ricci, is still alive living her everyday life as a middle school teacher with her boyfriend Paul, played by Justin Long. She goes to a funeral of her old piano teacher where she meets Eliot Deacon, played by Liam Neeson, for the first time. Anna’s everyday life isn’t all that well…she constantly pops pills and can’t seem to not have an argument with her boyfriend. One night, she gets into yet another argument with Paul and storms out of dinner by driving away in terrible weather where she eventually gets into a crash. Don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler to the movie as it happens pretty early and the whole focus of the film is her journey to the other side. She wakes up dazed and confused in the funeral home meeting the funeral director hovering over her body. She doesn’t believe she’s dead and Deacon lets her know that he can communicate with her because he has a gift and that he’s the only one with this gift that can talk to her.
This is a hard film to review because I don’t want to give away too much of what happens next. The film takes us, the audience, on a back and forth battle where it tries to convince us as Deacon tries to convince Anna that she is in fact dead. You never really know if she’s alive or not and the movie gives you clues to both states. You’re also not only kept to the funeral home, you also follow Anna’s boyfriend as he tries to figure out what really happened to his girlfriend since he thinks it’s his fault that she stormed out that night. At times the move is suspenseful and at other times it is aggravating because it toys with you and puts the characters in different scenarios where you just want something to happen to prove whether or not she’s really alive or dead. It’s a very interesting concept.
The film itself isn’t as strong as the idea behind it. The dialogue is pretty bad and childish giving punny lines and obvious foreshadows like when characters say “scared the life out of me” and “I’ve never been to a funeral before.” However, it does offer some nuggets of intrigue with lines from the funeral director as he tries to convince Anna that she’s already dead like “you all say you’re scared of death, but you’re all scared of life” and “maybe you died a long time ago.” The movie itself tries too hard to be indie and adds scenes that could’ve been left on the cutting room floor. The imagery is plain and common and doesn’t really add anything to the movie.
I really liked the idea behind the story but I know that audience members will hate the movie if they don’t get it. Walking out of my screening, there were a lot of groans and moans from the audience and people saying “I don’t get it” or “I’m so lost.” People also complained that the movie ran a bit long and could’ve ended at a couple points which is true, but the film was trying to give its opinion on a lot of subjects. I didn’t like the ending myself because the movie presented Deacon as one thing but then totally ruined it at the end turning him into something else. I would recommend the movie if you want to see something different and give your brain a little something to think about. Let me give you a question to begin with: How can you convince yourself that you’re living…right now?
Tags: after.life, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Liam Neeson
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
