Director
Bart Freundlich
Starring
Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore and Billy Crudup
After the Wedding is a Hollywood remake of a 2006 Danish film of the same name, which in the purpose of full disclosure, I haven’t seen and was unaware of prior to watching this film. I think that naivety about the film a good thing as I get the vibe that this is like a movie adaptation of a popular book, where everyone wants to compare, and no one is ever happy. Any negativity I’ve come across surrounding the film lies mainly in the comparison with its predecessor, or from the tired bleating’s of fragile manbabies that are upset that the protagonist characters in this version of the film are female (played by Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore) whereas those characters were male in the original. Personally, I think the story works incredibly well with the feminine approach and can’t actually imagine it working quite the way that it did if the characters were male.
The toughest thing regarding After the Wedding is trying to determine the synopsis. IMDB would have you believe that it’s as simple as “A manager of an orphanage in Kolkata travel[ling] to New York to meet a benefactor”. That’s what I was gearing up for, but DAMN! I was not prepared for the rollercoaster ride I was about to go on. That synopsis details about the first 10 minutes of the film, from there you’re taken on a surprisingly emotional journey that never quite lets you settle.
Michelle Williams plays Isabel, the rigid and seemingly emotionally closed off, expatriate orphanage manager who begrudgingly returns to New York from her new home in India on a mission to secure funding for her orphanage. Julianne Moore is Theresa, a wealthy, self-made woman looking to donate a large sum of money to Isabel’s cause. Once Isabel arrives in New York, Theresa explains that she’s still undecided about the charity and instead implores Isabel to remain in New York over the weekend and attend the wedding of Theresa’s daughter, so Theresa has time to consider Isabel’s financial request. From here things twist and turn, becoming more and more complicated as we find out the real motive for Theresa’s request of Isabel’s time. It’s throughout this journey that I am very glad that I had no real prior knowledge of the story or the original Danish film.
The performances of Williams and Moore are as impactful as you’d expect from the two accomplished women, but the performance of the relative newcomer Abby Quinn, playing Theresa’s daughter Grace, is impressive. Whilst the story moved a little slowly, particularly at the beginning, once it picked up its pace it certainly knew how to pack a punch, leading to several moments of genuine ugly crying on my behalf. The story was by no means perfect, and there will be moments you will wish for a little more for the actors to feed on, but what they did have, they feasted on until the carcass was stripped.
3.5 Stars
Trailer
AFTER THE WEDDING
Moviedoc thanks Rialto Distributions for the opportunity to review this film.
Moviedoc 
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