After.Life is a movie about death, life, and the transition from life to death. We are introduced to Anna Taylor (Christina Ricci) and Paul Coleman (Justin Long). It is obvious Anna really is not happy with her life. She’s a school teacher who has a special student named Jack (Chandler Canterbury) who is a little disturbed. Anna is heading to a funeral when we first meet the somewhat creepy undertaker, Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson). After the funeral, Anna goes to meet Paul at a local restaurant, where we learn that Paul is planning on proposing to Anna. Paul lures her to the restaurant by telling her he received a promotion which means he will have to move. Anna comes to the conclusion that Paul is leaving her. Anna, upset and distraught, drives away in a bad thunderstorm with the rain coming down hard and is not really concentrating on what is happening around her – she tries to dial her cell phone, not realizing that there’s a van in the other lane, and encounters a brilliant flash of light.
We cut to Anna waking up and wondering where she is, the undertaker informs her that she is now dead. But, she’s wide awake and talking to him, wondering how she can be dead and still be talking to him. Deacon alerts her that he has a “gift” that allows him to help the recently deceased in their transition to the after life. Oh, to be so bold, director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo introduced the “I can talk to dead people” bit.
Paul is searching for Anna, and has no idea what has happened to her. Distraught, he goes to her school only to find out that she didn’t even show up for work. Paul turns to the one place he’d rather not go, Anna’s mothers house, and finds out from Anna’s mother- Beatrice (Celia Weston) that Anna was in a car accident and it was, of course, Paul’s fault for letting her drive in the bad storm. Yep, more cheesy stereotyping – they went there!
Back at the funeral home, Eliot is injecting Anna with something to help her muscles relax while her mother comes in to see her daughter one last time. Beatrice, in a moment of humor that possibly wasn’t supposed to be, asks Anna if she thought about her mother before she “went and died”. Shortly after she leaves, Paul shows up and asks to see Anna one last time but is refused at the door by Eliot. Eliot lets him know that since he’s not family he can not view the body. Anna is once again awake and listening to what is transpiring upstairs. Elliot tries to deceive Anna, claiming it wasn’t Paul at the door, but Anna knows better.
Suspense was supposed to happen, fear, levity, all these things were supposed to happen, but After.Life fails to reach any kind of stability. Sure, it has some moments that may leave a bit of a mark, but where the potential and execution meet is nowhere to be found. It was sloppy film-making and mediocre entertainment.
The movie just kept getting more and more convoluted with twists and turns and cut-scenes, dream sequences, homages to past movies that made no sense and sprayed the screen with a confusing mess of a story. It just keeps going and going, with no end in sight, and when you think it’s over, it’s not done yet! It just keeps attempting to add more and more to an already ridonkulous plot. It attempts to make sense by having different aspects of movies from the past all tied in; the movie’s most serious parts turned out to be humorous – taking the audience right out of the movie. I guess if you REALLY need to see Christina Ricci topless for a decent portion of the movie, it might be worth checking out, otherwise I would stay away.
After.Life proves what I have said throughout my existence; Death is the easy part, Life is what kills you. I will admit, there was a guy a couple rows behind me who thought it was AWESOME, and his girlfriend asked him if they saw the same movie?!!? I guess I wasn’t the only person who thought it was utter crap!
