After.life (2009)

Directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo
Written by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo, Paul Vosloo & Jakub Korolczuk
Featuring Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long
Review by Hal MacDermot

Do the dead live, or are the living dead? What does it mean to be dead anyway? Great questions, but I’m not sure if Agnieszka Wojtowicz really manages to answer them. After.life is her first feature, a psychological thriller, and despite some top notch talent in the persons of Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci and Justin Long, the film never lives up to potential. Liam Neeson’s performance as scary funeral-director-guy is the saving grace...

Anna (Christina Ricci) wakes up after a car accident and finds herself being prepared for burial in Eliot Deacon’s (Liam Neeson) funeral home. It seems that Eliot has a gift for conversing with the dead, and that’s why he can talk with her. He tells us that his role is to prepare people for their journey to the other side. So yes, there’s a whole bunch of not-so-subtle subtext about what it means to be dead, what Anna really wanted out of life, and did she really love her boyfriend (Justin Long), or not?

The problem is, we never really do understand what she wants out of life, or whether she loves anyone. Her motivation isn’t clear and that’s not the fault of Ricci at all; it’s a problem with the script. Perhaps the point is that she doesn’t have the lust for life, but if that’s it, then “blah” to that. If she really wanted to live, and had fought for it, things might have become interesting. In case you watch this movie, I’m not going to give away anymore plot details. I can’t, because it would spoil the whole thing, but there are notes of Jennifer Lynch’s Boxing Helena (minus the love element.)

I thought that Liam Neeson was really well cast. He has this threatening, understated thing which is just great; a twitch of the lips, a sneer, a small gesture. If the writers had actually given him more than clichés to say his role would have been awesome. The film's visual highlights include Christina Ricci laying out a red chemise on a morgue board. Wonderful, yes, but not enough to carry the whole movie. Corpses, funeral homes, the dead... that’s really a great world to explore, but the script never digs deep. Live burial is a powerful thing to conjure (think the Bride’s entombment in Kill Bill II) and After.life wastes the opportunity.

Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo won a bunch of awards for her previous film, Pâté, an apocalyptic short with a gothic twang. Apparently she also worked with Laurie Anderson on something with the Paris Opera Ballet, so I’m guessing she’s got talent. After.life doesn’t demonstrate that.

Review courtesy of QuietEarth.us