Film Review: After The Wedding Redefines Family
Written and directed by Bart Freundlich, After The Wedding plays like a quiet melodrama. It is seemingly noiseless in its building tension as each of its characters’ question what is “family.” With Michelle Williams as Isabel and Julianne Moore as Theresa, the dynamic duo hones the heart of this film with their performances.
Moore and Williams are unstoppable, acting talents; being able to say every human emotion through their eyes and silence. Thus, as a viewer, you feel warped by all that they don’t say. Moore plays Theresa; an extremely wealthy businesswoman looking to donate money to Williams’ orphanage in India and meet the real mother of her daughter: Grace (Abby Quinn). Whether she knew the latter when she reached out to Isabel is what drives the wedge and potential bridge to their bond. Was Theresa a mastermind or a victim of coincidence? Either way, Isabel needs the money for her kids, and stays to meet the family that became her daughter’s own.
After The Wedding | Official Trailer HD (2019)
Quinn as Grace is sweet, smart, and lost. Like any youth, she brims with hopelessness and adventure; completely confused as to where she belongs in this world. Billy Crudup as her father, Oscar, is sincere in his love for Theresa and firmness in keeping Grace and letting Isabel go. While, in another world, knowing your husband’s first love and mother to his only daughter has returned might leave you tense, Theresa is mores curious. Her own health issues leave her trying to piece together her bonds, and lead Moore to have the most gut-wrenching scenes of the film. Her turmoil is not feeling she will lose her family as much as they will lose her; leaving Williams’ Isabel to grow the compassion she swears she has for the needy.
After The Wedding is stunning and slowly paced; simmering in the emotions of its characters. It really is a film about people meeting and re-meeting each other. In this sense, there is not so much “action” beyond the conversations each character has that, potentially, build or sinks the other’s spirit. Strangely, the film feels wholesome, despite its drama. Yet, again, it is a story about connection, and the fight to push aside anger, fear, and impending loneliness to really love someone. After The Wedding Premieres In Theaters on August 9.
