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Studio: Anchor Bay EntertainmentYear: 2009
Cast: Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, Justin Long, Chandler Canterbury, Beatrice Taylor, Luz Alexandra Ramos, Josh Charles, Rosemary Murphy, Doan Ly, Shuler Hensley
Director: Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo
Release Date: August 03, 2010
Rating: R for nudity, disturbing images, language and brief sexuality
Run Time: 01h:42m:46s
Genre(s): thriller, mystery Anna Taylor: I'm not dead.
Eliot Deacon: You all say the same thing.
- (Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson)
Not perfect, but a worthwhile rental if you like occasionally stylish and moody films set in funeral homes, discussions of the afterlife and/or seeing Christina Ricci nude.Movie Grade: B-
DVD Grade: B-
The tagline for After.Life is "how can you save yourself if you're already dead?", and the cover art shows a seemingly spectral Christina Ricci rising out of her own dead body. Add to that Anchor Bay's overly chatty plot description on the back and I went into the debut feature from writer/director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo expecting something completely different. While there were plenty of the traditional genre elements I was anticipating (flickering lights, a creepy kid), Wojtowicz-Vosloo reworks the outright predictability factor with a story that doesn't necessarily go where it initially appeared to.
Christina Ricci is Anna, a young teacher in a relationship with Justin Long's Paul the lawyer. Their romance isn't perfect, with Anna often appearing distant and catatonic, and when Paul is offered an out-of-state transfer a misunderstanding leads to a tragic auto accident. When Anna "awakes" after the car crash she finds herself on a slab in a funeral home, with eerie mortician Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson) informing her that she died 8 hours ago and he is to prepare her for her funeral. There's some mumbo jumbo about Deacon being able to hear the recently departed, and how his mission is to help them make the transition into the titular afterlife.
In Wojtowicz-Vosloo's world, the recently dead can apparently walk around, scream and throw tantrums, so the often nude Ricci isn't solely confined to acting on her back. As she comes to terms with her fate while locked in the mortuary, a grief-stricken Paul goes off the emotional deep end, with his actions becoming increasingly erratic. When the genre requisite creepy kid (Chandler Canterbury) supplies Paul with some disturbing news about Anna things quickly get really nutty for everyone.
Nice performances from the three leads (it's expected from Neeson), with the dark horse surprise being Justin Long, who does a fine job portraying the grieving boyfriend. I'm not necessarily dusting off an Oscar, but he put a believable spin on that dark downward spiral of grief and anger that can arise after losing a loved one. By the time Radiohead's Exit Music: For a Film is appropriately playing over the closing credits Wojtowicz-Vosloo has wobbled the playing field, perhaps a bit too ambiguously at times. Her comments in the supplements do explain some of the less clear parts, to the point where I found myself revisiting scenes with the new perspective. I'm still not completely satisfied with some of the unexplained plot holes, but I liked the message and mood she was trying to convey.
At first glance this may appear like a familiar supernatural thriller (dead person who doesn't think they're dead) with an interesting cast list, yet it is actually much more nuanced than it lets on. For what it's worth, I'm adding Wojtowicz-Vosloo to my imaginary "directors to watch for" list.
IMAGE/AUDIO
The 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks quite presentable, though I've heard higher praise for the BD release, which seems to rectify some of the modest blocking issues evident on this SD version. This generally a very dark film, but bursts of color (such Ricci's red slip) seem especially vibrant, and the metallic hues of Neeson's mortuary often carry that industrial/tinted Saw look to them.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 delivers clean dialogue, but it really excels with subtle surround cues (background voices, leaves rustling) that give the presentation some natural depth. The overuse of those genre requisite score stingers to sell the drama may be a little overdone here (apologies to composer Paul Haslinger), but the audio quality is consistently solid.
EXTRAS
Extras include an often revealing commentary from director Wojtowicz-Vosloo, in which she manages to point out and clarify a few plot points that were maybe not so clear in the film. She does spend an inordinate amount of time telling us what we're seeing (a real pet peeve of mine) but the few kernels of helpful info made me look at and appreciate the film differently. Plus, I dig her accent.
Much of the same ground is covered in a shorter timeframe with Wojtowicz-Vosloo in Delving into the After.Life: Making of Featurette (08m:02s), and this spoiler-heavy segment does a nice job connecting thematic dots.
A theatrical trailer for After.Life is included, as are a couple of other Anchor Bay titles.
Posted by: Rich Rosell - September 19, 2010, 7:07 am - DVD ReviewKeywords: afterlife, death, liam neeson, christina ricci, justin long, agnieszka wojtowicz-vosloo
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