After the Wedding (2019) review ★★★★★

Directed by: Bart Freundlich
Starring: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams
Runtime: 1h50min

Rich white people have feelings too!, After the Wedding seems to shout.

Bart Freundlich's film, a gender-swapped remake of a 2006 Dutch movie, is a reminder of the arguments against dramas with affluent characters. Judging by a few reactions to Fleabag and Beautiful Boy, the debate isn’t uncommon.

But these examples have something enduring and emotional to say, whereas After the Wedding has no such allure. It's stunted in the world of a wealthy, vapid family – turning its overdramatic wheels like a well-shot soap opera.


Michelle Williams plays an orphanage-worker in India

Isabel is an orphanage worker in India, called away to New York to meet the mega-rich Theresa for a potential investment. After Theresa invites her to a wedding, Isabel finds out a terrible secret.

Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore strain in their roles as Isabel and Theresa - struggling to pull the film out of its boredom - but they achieve natural, crushing performances. The talents are wasted under Freundlich's direction, who makes even the most devastating scenes look laughably mediocre.

The story unfolds like an excessive retching of confused plot-lines and cheesy twists. There are so many opportunities to heighten the conflict and play with tension, but they're left abandoned in stupidly large houses and expensive works of art.

After the Wedding doesn’t only take place after the wedding. There’s a long period before, a pointless time during, and an irritating result after. And it doesn’t stop there - it plods along after the 'after' and stretches each scene to unnecessary tedium. The whole film is like an endless wedding speech that goes off-tangent, barely finding its way back again.