Customer Reviews

After.Life

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

One of the best thrillers and love stories (combined) that I've ever viewed. The trio of Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci and Justin Long makes this a superb thriller/love story that is a must for all of the people on this planet that have been afraid to love. This flick has a profound statement to make...not just a thriller...not just a relationship gone south because of emotional drain. All 5 stars. I can see why others would not give this a high rating. It's very deep (no pun intended) and it's not a film to watch for pure entertainment. It's a mind trip.

The "surprise ending" of this movie was telegraphed pretty early in the film .. so that kind of killed the suspense factor.

Otherwise this could have been a much better film considering the acting talent, great photography and overall mood and tone they were able to create.

But in the end, something just doesn't come together and give this movie the spark it could have had.

One redeeming feature of the film ..... if you are a young man who likes Christine Ricci, you will get LOTS of opportunity to see more of her in this film.

She spends 75% of the movie walking, sitting and laying around nude.

Since she is cute, you can't find any fault with that !

What struck me as the most eerie in this film was how Liam Neeson made this movie so near the time of his own wife's death.

It is the same strange feeling when you see Christopher Reeve's last movie where he played a paralyzed cop and weeks later was of course really paralyzed.

Or seeing John Wayne in the Shootist playing an old gunslinger trying to die in peace from cancer when we know that in real life he was battling cancer when he made that film.

This is a movie not for everyone. With that said if you enjoy a movie where you have to think, ponder and get involved mentally in the movie, this is the movie for you. It is a slower paced movie; however, if you don't have your eyes on the screen you will miss important visual clues to help you choose what is going on in the movie. After watching this movie once, for me there were 3 ways this movie could be. 1. she is dead. 2. she is alive and he is crazy. 3. she is dead and he is crazy. It is up to you how you choose to see the movie. There is so much in the movie that can be seen 2 or more ways. Another question always throughout the movie was "which point of view is this scene shot for?" which helped me choose and understand this movie. i have watched this movie 5 times and hope to own it in the future and watch it many more times. It is fun changing the point of view of which character I follow as I watch this movie.

I'm surprised that this movie hasn't gotten better reviews. Lot's of people compared this to the Sixth Sense, but I'm not entirely convinced that's a fair and accurate comparison, though the movie raises similar questions. Yes the viewer is often wondering if the characters are alive or dead, but they are also wondering if something much more sinister is taking place.

That's what makes this film so intriguing. Lots of questions are raised, and none completely answered. The viewer is left to draw their own conclusions, which may require more than one viewing.

Giving the fine performances of Liam Neeson, Justin Long (one of his best performances), and Christina Ricci, additional viewings are a pleasure.

Not your everyday thriller, this subtle film is one of the best I've seen in a long time.

I saw this on demand. Great cast but it never comes together. The thrill was missing in this thriller. The plot was plodding and predictable. The movie felt very derivative of others that came before it and there was something lacking. It is basically a movie about a dead girl who says she is not dead. You have to wait 1 and 1/2 hours to find out if she is or not. It's a long wait.

I enjoyed this movie, it was different but kept you on the edge of your seat. The one thing that stuck in my mind the whole movie was what would I do? How could I make it known that I was really alive and in fact not dead. The suspense was always there all the way through the movie, it is a movie worth watching.

Liam Neeson does a wonderful job portraying a mysterious undertaker. He's a sort of Charon, the mythic ferryman who conveyed the dead to Hades along the River Styx.

But are the dead he's incising really dead? Or are his subjects merely dreaming him and their deaths? Or more disturbing still, is Neeson a serial killer who convinces his victims that they are dead while he starts the intimate process of stitching them, dressing them, applying make-up to them?

Neeson skillfully combines the oily sympathy of a funeral director with the soft, sinister, convincing quality of a killer. So which is he? This film keeps us guessing - and then some. It layers anomaly on anachronism. In that respect, it's a little like "The Shining" in which all sorts of supernatural elements, from telepathy to reincarnation, were mixed so thrillingly that the viewer didn't notice the overall incoherence of it all. Here we get a similar random potpourri of mystic, mystifying elements.

For example, there's the boy who's fascinated by the undertaker's art and who is becoming Neeson's sorcerer's apprentice. Having a youngster hovering wanly in the morgue is odd and unlikely enough by any interpretation of the movie's meaning. But then we see the boy at home. His mother appears too old and strangely desiccated to have borne him just ten or eleven years previous. But more puzzling still - while the movie as a whole is set in the present, with modern cars and all the modern conveniences - the boy's mother is seen staring at an episode of "Beat the Clock" on TV, a game show hosted by Bud Collyer and last aired in the mid 1950's. There's also a 1950's phone in the morgue. What are these brief time displacements supposed to mean? And what is that mysterious dot between "After" and "Life" doing in the movie title?

Director Wojtowicz-Vosloo does supply a pat interpretation of the film in a brief bonus commentary. She says, "Of course, the explanation is..." I don't think there could be any "of course" about it though. There's no single interpretation that could cover all the actions and oddities of the characters in this film. The Director's reductionism detracts from the spell cast by the film.

Despite there being a few too many conflicting spirits here, the film is haunting and poignant. Under its shroud of uncertainty, it left me with a greater appreciation for the preciousness of life, and that's a rare sentiment to carry away from a movie these days.

AFTER. LIFE features Christina Ricci (SLEEPY HOLLOW, CURSED, THE GATHERING) as a woman named Anna, who dies in an automobile accident. Perhaps? Definitely? I guess. Liam Neeson (DARKMAN) is the undertaker, meeting Anna in the funeral home, while preparing her body. Meanwhile, Anna's boyfriend Paul (Justin Long from JEEPERS CREEPERS, DRAG ME TO HELL, etc.) becomes increasingly convinced that Anna isn't dead. Of course, we know she is deceased... er, Maybe. AFTER. LIFE is a tale of remorse, regret, and hope for a second chance. A lot of people seem to not like the way it ends, but I enjoyed the whole movie. The fact of a naked Ms. Ricci posing on a slab, and slinking about had no influence on my vote. Well, maybe a little...

This was an outstanding movie with a strong story line. It was well played out and keep you waiting for the next thing to happen. Well written and all of the actors did a great job.

I rented this from Netflix and i was thoroughly surprised...it has good suspense..an in-depth movie which makes the watcher think..I did not like the ending..but over all it was creepy ...