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LOVE AFTER LOVE (2018)
Director: Russell Harbaugh Cast: Chris O'Dowd, Andie MacDowell, James Adomian, Juliet Rylance, Dree Hemingway, Francesca Faridany, Seth Barrish, Gareth Willams MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:31 Release Date: 3/30/18 (limited); 4/27/18 (wider) |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik | April 26, 2018 The story of Love After Love is one of grieving, and it's about that process in a specific, particularly sad sort of way. Co-writer/director Russell Harbaugh basically has made a film about that lifelong final step of the grieving process: acceptance. The characters here don't necessarily move on from the loss of a husband and a father, but to an outside observer, it certainly would look that way. The film follows three characters: Suzanne (Andie MacDowell), the wife of a man who dies in the story's opening act, and her two sons Nicholas (Chris O'Dowd) and Chris (James Adomian). After a brief introduction to the family, seeing the patriarch Glenn (Gareth Williams) in his final days of relative health, the film watches as his condition deteriorates. In the short sequence, Harbaugh shows illness and dying as it is—the need for help with even basic functions, the labored breathing, the complete suddenness of it all in the end. There's a funeral, and then, life keeps going. Nicholas' already-strained relationship with his wife Rebecca (Juliet Rylance) falls apart, and he marries someone else. The seemingly aimless Chris, a struggling writer, becomes caught up in figuring out what to do with his life. Suzanne eventually meets another man, which angers Nicholas, who really shouldn't have a say in the matter, if only because his own romantic relationships keep being torn apart by his constant desire to move from woman to woman. It's a relatively simple story that's less about the characters and more about the fact of constant change and disruption within what could—maybe even should—be stable lives. Death is only one part of it. Yes, it defines a lot of how these characters behave, but there's a sense that a lot of what happens here probably would have happened without the death at the story's start. Suzanne would have been happily in love. Nicholas would still be ruining his relationships. Chris would be up in the air about his career. That's the sadness and, perhaps ultimately, the optimism of the film—the way that major change doesn't stop the way that lives keep changing. Love After Love ends with the death of another character, who's consistently present but always in the background. Life has to keep changing. The only other option is the film's closing image. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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