After the Wedding: Film Review

I went into After the Wedding without knowing the plot, all I knew was that it starred my favourites Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore, and this movie blew my mind with its dramatic turns – and not necessarily in a good way.

Williams stars as Isabel, an American working at an orphanage in India. The place desperately needs money and a potential benefactor miraculously materialises, offering to donate thousands if Isabel goes to New York to meet in person. She obliges and meets Theresa (Moore), who is about to sell her media company. She’s also preparing for her daughter’s wedding and invites Isabel to come along – and she meets someone from her past.

Without getting into spoilers, let’s just say there’s this huge jaw-dropping revelation that presents an interesting moral dilemma. I didn’t know where the plot was going until this point and then it had my attention. I was excited to see the ramifications of the revelation and how the characters dealt with it and it did deliver at first, but then it just went quite bonkers. Too much stuff happened, it went on far too long and felt so over the top and melodramatic. It was like a soap!

Williams is always a reliable performer so it’s no surprise that she’s the same here. Moore was interesting though. She has the Oscar to prove she can act but in After the Wedding – in which she’s directed by her husband Bart Freundlich – she really goes overboard following another big reveal. There’s a scene in which she cries so unrealistically and over the top that I wanted to laugh. Billy Crudup is strong as Theresa’s husband Oscar and Abby Quinn was wonderful as their daughter Grace.

After the Wedding – a gender-flipped remake of the 2006 Danish film – is totally unexpected and wild. This much stuff should not happen to one set of characters. It’s too much, it’s overkill and by the end, you just feel sorry for Isabel for getting tied up with that family. It was way too soapy and overdramatic.

In cinemas Friday 1st November