movie review after the wedding

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It's rare to encounter a non-franchise story so dependent on twists that it's impossible to evaluate in detail without describing every major thing that happens, but "After the Wedding" is that kind of movie. Michelle Williams stars as Isabel, an American woman who runs an orphanage in Kolkata, India. Julianne Moore is Theresa Young, the wealthy American who summons Isabel to New York promising to become her organization's largest benefactor as she prepares to sell the company she founded and cash out. Billy Crudup is Oscar Carlson, Theresa's sculptor husband. This also happens to be the weekend that Theresa and Oscar's daughter Grace ( Abby Quinn ) is marrying a nice young man named Frank (Will Chase). Complications ensue, and ...

I'm already banging my head against the desk in frustration here, so I'll just spend two paragraphs telling you what I thought of the movie overall, in vague terms, and you can decide if it sounds interesting, then come back and read beyond that paragraph to learn exactly why I didn't love it?

Okay, fabulous—let's do that, then.

"After the Wedding" is adapted and directed from a Susanne Bier original by Bart Freundlich , the maker of such American indie dramas as "The Myth of Fingerprints," and the husband of Moore, the leading lady in both movies. It feels very much like the kind of movie that would play at a film festival attended mainly by rich people who have summer homes in the community where the festival happens. Aside from bracketing sequences set at the orphanage, where Isabel has become a mother figure to an adorable little boy named Jai (Vir Pachisia), most of the movie is set in the realm of ultra-rich Americans, mainly in Theresa's glass-and-steel office building, the luxury Manhattan hotel where she puts Isabel up in a penthouse suite, and on the grounds of Theresa and Oscar's country estate. This is a Sad Rich People movie, no more so than a lot of American films dating back to the dawn of cinema, but it's no " The Leopard " or " The Royal Tenenbaums " or "The Great Gatsby" or you-name-it. It's just fuzzy enough and fragmented enough that the opulence immediately overwhelms the perspective of Isabel, who is set up to be our guide through the story, a polite but appalled observer who very deliberately rejected this world decades earlier.

The contrivances pile up almost immediately, revelations leading to more revelations and then to confrontations and arguments. But the movie doesn't savor them as a great melodrama or psychodrama should. It's too tasteful for that, often cutting away from potentially wrenching moments before we can have a proper wallow and returning later, after the messy, volatile part has presumably occurred offscreen. It's the film that seems repressed, more so than the characters, who sit on pain for a not-unreasonable amount of time and discuss their feelings plainly and mostly honestly. It's all very upper-crust European, in the vein of the kinds of bourgeois French films that tend to find their way to however many arthouses are still left in the United States, although there are no older male architects or composers with wives half their age and mistresses a third their age, there's no sex, and nobody plays classical piano over a montage of people driving.

And now we're onto the plot details part.

Shortly after Isabel arrives in New York, Theresa informs her that the donation to the orphanage isn't a done deal, that it's one of several gifts she's considering, a bit of information that bewilders Isabel; soon after, we learn that Oscar is Isabel's ex-boyfriend and Grace is the child that Isabel had with him with the understanding that she was going to be given up for adoption. Isabel left for India and Oscar changed his mind and kept the child, eventually settling into a new relationship with Theresa, who became a mother to Grace and had two more children (twin boys) with Oscar. On top of all this, Theresa has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, probably only has three months to live, but has decided to keep the information from her husband and children so that they won't feel sad.

This is all very "An Affair to Remember," the three-handkerchief climax of which can be Googled if you're not familiar with it already and don't feel like watching it on your own. There's a shamelessly powerful story about parents and children buried somewhere in all these plot machinations, a contrast of nature and nurture unfolding through carefully observed scenes of Grace interacting with Isabel, with their many similarities driving home the biological connection that she'll never have with her adoptive mother, however loving and well-meaning she might be. But there are so few meaty scenes between Isabel and Grace, or Theresa and Grace, that this avenue remains largely unexplored.

Similarly neglected are the cultural expectations placed on women that make some of them reflexively wave away the idea that they might be good mothers, perhaps from fear that they might get pressured into giving up their lives to motherhood when they want other things, too. The irony that Isabel escaped the burden of unwanted biological motherhood only to prove herself an exceptional mother to dozens of orphans (in a setting where she sets the terms, and on her own personal timetable) is something the film doesn't have the mental bandwidth to properly deal with, because it's so focused on the dynamic between its central trio.

There's also a good movie in here about the lengths that the rich will go to in order to control everyone else's lives, even those of individuals that they want to help. People like Isabel publicly demonstrate "generosity" and assuage their unnamed guilt over being able to afford lobster for their daughter's wedding reception, when most of the world lives more like the orphaned children that Isabel loves so much.

But Freundlich's script keeps hopscotching right past the good stuff. Williams, Moore and Crudup are phenomenal actors, and there are five or six moments of resentment and anguish that they play opposite each other or solo where their talent gets to pop. And there are finely observed details, like the moment when Isabel tells Oscar that she looked up his artwork online and was shocked by how bad it was, and the moment where Theresa orders for herself and Isabel in a restaurant without asking Isabel's permission (powerful people often do this without giving it a second thought; the Showtime series "Billions" brilliantly makes fun of it). But the movie keeps hurrying us past the sorts of sharp, true observations, because it's in a hurry to set up the next bombshell twist, and the next muted, mournful tableau set against an opulent backdrop.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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After the Wedding (2019)

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and some strong language.

110 minutes

Michelle Williams as Isabelle

Julianne Moore as Theresa

Billy Crudup as Oscar

Abby Quinn as Grace

Bart Freundlich

Writer (original screenplay)

Susanne Bier
Anders Thomas Jensen

Cinematographer

Julio Macat
Joseph Krings
Mychael Danna

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After the Wedding

2019, Drama, 1h 52m

What to know

Critics Consensus

After the Wedding benefits from solid casting and strong source material, yet proves stubbornly resistant to spark to emotional life. Read critic reviews

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After the wedding videos, after the wedding photos.

Seeking funds for her orphanage in India, Isabel travels to New York to meet Theresa, a wealthy benefactor. An invitation to attend a wedding ignites a series of events in which the past collides with the present as mysteries unravel.

Rating: PG-13 (Thematic Material|Some Strong Language)

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Bart Freundlich

Producer: Joel B. Michaels , Silvio Muraglia , Harry Finkel , Bart Freundlich , Julianne Moore

Writer: Susanne Bier , Anders Thomas Jensen , Bart Freundlich

Release Date (Theaters): Aug 9, 2019 limited

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 12, 2019

Box Office (Gross USA): $1.6M

Runtime: 1h 52m

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Production Co: Sony Pictures Classics, Riverstone Pictures, Joel B. Michaels Productions, Rock Island Films, Paradox Studios

Cast & Crew

Julianne Moore

Michelle Williams

Billy Crudup

Azhy Robertson

Bart Freundlich

Susanne Bier

Screenwriter

Anders Thomas Jensen

Executive Producer

William Byerley

Mark Gooder

David Brown

Michael Caton-Jones

Joel B. Michaels

Silvio Muraglia

Harry Finkel

Julio Macat

Cinematographer

Joseph Krings

Film Editing

Production Design

Starlet Jacobs

Art Director

Cat Navarro

Colleen Rushton

Set Decoration

News & Interviews for After the Wedding

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Critic Reviews for After the Wedding

Audience reviews for after the wedding.

An American remake of a Danish film, After the Wedding is a captivating character drama. When the manager of an Indian orphanage comes to New York to secure funding from a wealthy businesswoman she soon discovers that her potential benefactor has an ulterior motive. Starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Billy Crudup, and film has a solid cast that delivers some good performances. However, the script is a little thin and the pacing is kind of slow. Yet while it has some weaknesses, After the Wedding is a powerful film about love and family.

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After the wedding, common sense media reviewers.

Troubled women, big emotions in quietly devastating drama.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Demonstrates in a nuanced way how choices people m

Theresa and Isabel are both flawed but courageous

Death plays a part in the movie, but viewers don't

A character climbs into his wife's bath and kisses

Swearing is infrequent but includes "f--king," "go

Characters drink at gatherings; in one scene, part

Positive Messages

Demonstrates in a nuanced way how choices people made in the past affect (and sometimes haunt) the present. Strong themes of compassion, communication are demonstrated as characters ask openly for what they want -- and receive support and aid. The story's framing plot elements border on "white savior" territory, but the focus doesn't stay there.

Positive Role Models

Theresa and Isabel are both flawed but courageous women who make choices based on what's best for children, in their judgment; not everyone agrees that these choices are right/acceptable, but viewers understand why they made them, and the movie sympathizes with them. Families are close and loving, spending lots of time together, showing affection in many ways.

Violence & Scariness

Death plays a part in the movie, but viewers don't see any blood, gore, or bodies; instead, the film sticks to depicting grief, how it affects lives. Brief mention of children dying of malnutrition, some footage of poor people in India living on the street. Arguments/yelling.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A character climbs into his wife's bath and kisses her; he's fully clothed, and her body is covered with water and bubbles. One character briefly mentions child prostitution. Mentions of people sleeping with others.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Swearing is infrequent but includes "f--king," "goddamn," "bullshit," and "a--hole."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink at gatherings; in one scene, partygoers chug drinks as a crowd around them cheers, but no one acts drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that After the Wedding is a drama about a woman ( Michelle Williams ) whose life changes in unexpected ways after connecting with a benefactor ( Julianne Moore ) who offers to fund her orphanage. A looming death plays a large part in the drama, but viewers don't see any death depicted on-screen; instead, the focus is on love and grief within a family. The film begins in India, where viewers see poor people living on the street and hear mentions of children dying of malnutrition and being forced into sex work. Language is infrequent, but expect "f--king," "goddamn," "bullshit," and "a--hole"; there are also some loud, tense arguments. Sexual content is limited to one scene in which a character climbs into his wife's bath to start kissing her; neither are visibly nude, and the camera cuts away quickly. Characters drink at parties, and two of them chug drinks as a crowd cheers, but no one acts drunk. Characters do everything they can to protect their families, even to the point of making choices that not everyone agrees with. Both are courageous and strong, demonstrating compassion and communication in their attempts to keep their family safe. The film is a gender-flipped remake of the same-named Danish movie from 2006. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

A beautifully acted movie with some tears too.

What's the story.

Searing drama AFTER THE WEDDING follows Isabel ( Michelle Williams ), who travels to New York to meet wealthy benefactor Theresa ( Julianne Moore ) in hopes of securing a donation. But Theresa has more on her mind than just writing a fat check. When she invites Isabel to attend her daughter Grace's ( Abby Quinn ) wedding, Isabel learns that much more connects her to Theresa, Grace, and Grace's dad, Oscar ( Billy Crudup ), than Isabel would have imagined -- and that there's a devastating decision she must make that will change all of their lives forever.

Is It Any Good?

Based on the same-named 2006 Danish drama, this remake scores by gender-flipping the action and putting the story's emotional weight on powerhouses Moore and Williams. In the original, a pair of fathers arm-wrestled over money and family; this version shrewdly preserves the 2006 film's devastating twists but transfers main-character status to Isabel and Theresa. The gamble pays off, with Moore giving a towering performance that will wring tears from sensitive viewers and Williams going subtle-yet-devastating in the role of a woman caught by circumstance in a life she never chose.

Since some of the best bits of this quiet, emotional gut-punch of a film are the startling revelations that shift the movie's path from where you thought it was going to another place altogether, it's best to go in not knowing very much (no spoilers here!). Suffice it to say that every character feels like a real person who's going through devastating changes and making choices that impact the lives of those around them for better or for worse. "Help me!" pleads Theresa of Isabel, who offers limitless compassion to the orphans in her care but views Theresa with deep suspicion. "Do I have to be halfway around the world to get your help?" As Isabel undergoes a crisis of conscience, she wonders the same thing. Is her charity work in India just a way to cover up for the gaping holes she left back home? And is there any chance at this point of charting a different course? Her struggle is painful to watch, but what emerges is simply beautiful.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about movies that gender-flip characters. Can you think of examples of characters who were originally conceived of as one gender, yet ultimately depicted by a different gender? How does this change plot or characterization, if at all? Why do you think filmmakers sometimes make this choice?

Are viewers supposed to like and relate to Isabel and Theresa? How can you tell? How do we know who to trust and relate to in a drama like this? How are characters' inner lives and motivations revealed?

How do the characters in After the Wedding demonstrate compassion and communication ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 9, 2019
On DVD or streaming : November 12, 2019
Cast : Michelle Williams , Julianne Moore , Billy Crudup
Director : Bart Freundlich
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Sony Pictures Classics
Genre : Drama
Character Strengths : Communication , Compassion
Run time : 110 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : thematic material and some strong language
Last updated : February 2, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Movie Reviews

Domestic drama After the Wedding offers pretty melancholy and movie stars

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

A surprise arthouse hit, the original Danish After the Wedding earned a 2007 Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language Film and helped introduce American audiences to the severe Scandi charisma of Mads Mikkelsen , future star of Doctor Strange and TV’s Hannibal .

Director Bart Freundlich ( Trust the Man ) brings his own movie stars to this glossy, melancholy American adaptation, including his wife, Julianne Moore , and enough high-end real estate to make Nancy Meyers mad with throw-pillow envy.

He’s also switched the genders of the protagonists: An earnest, pixie-cut Michelle Williams is Isabel, who’s seemingly devoted her life’s work to an impoverished orphanage in India; when a mysterious benefactor offers a large donation on the sole condition that she come to New York to collect it, she practically has to be shoved onto the airplane.

The VIP treatment she receives when she lands — town cars, clothing allowance, luxe hotel suite — both confounds and vaguely offends her; what does this brisk, bossy woman, a self-made advertising mogul named Theresa (Moore), think she’s buying with her money? And why does she seem so eager to invest in something she appears to have almost no real personal interest in?

The answer becomes both clearer and much more complicated when Isabel is politely coerced to attend a family celebration before the final papers are signed — and locks eyes with Theresa’s startled husband ( Billy Crudup ) across the lawn.

Williams’ Isabel is almost willfully unshowy: a woman so reserved that it’s hard at first to tell if she allows herself to feel anything at all, outside of her righteous commitment to the children she dotes on at the orphanage. Moore’s Theresa, all affluence, confidence, and big gestures, comes to own the movie in one late devastating scene; as the man between them, Crudup brings quiet empathy to an uneasy role.

If the script’s epiphanies don’t feel quite as shocking or profound the second time around, it’s still pleasing to watch these beautiful, troubled people move through their equally beautiful spaces: something borrowed, something blue — and with Freundlich’s careful alterations, something new. B

‘After the Wedding’ Review: Mystery, Melodrama and Michelle Williams

By David Fear

Michelle Williams gives great righteous anger. Like any talented actor, she has an incredible range — from mousy girl Friday to a giggly Marliyn Monroe to Manchester by the Sea ‘s grieving matriarch — and an ability to add beautiful little nuances to the biggest of scenes. But give Williams the chance to express a wounded sense of self, and the space to let that pain transform into a sort of slowburn fury, and the woman is unstoppable. No one does quiet storms and emotional boiling-point build-ups like her. She’s a first-rate onscreen raw nerve.

Consider After the Wedding an Exhibit A to her extraordinary abilities — it’s the best, and maybe the only way to think of director Bart Freundlich’s Americanized remake of the 2006 Danish tearjerker. We’re introduced to her sitting in a Lotus position and lording over a group of young Indian children. Her character, Isabel, oversees an orphanage in Calcutta; an impatient frustration over the lack of funds for food, bedding, etc. is a hint of the rage looming on the horizon. Luckily, there’s a possible donor who may have the answer to their financial prayers. The catch is that she wants to meet Isabel in person before officially signing the check.

Enter Theresa ( Julianne Moore ), her benefactor and bougie counterpart. You could say she has it all: the billion-dollar media placement company she built from scratch, the gorgeous mansion, the handsome metal-sculptor husband (Billy Crudup, handsome and occasionally sculpting metal). Theresa is wheeling and dealing and barking orders into her phone, as well as micromanaging wedding details for her bride-to-be daughter Grace (Abby Quinn). She’s put Isabel up in a swank hotel and given her a driver, which leads to the first of three amazing looks that Williams unleashes. The existential befuddlement at the opulence around her — such luxury, flying in the face of the poverty she’s seen — is all there in this visitor’s face. There is more character development in that confusion then there is most full performances.

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The second look comes when the two meet, and Isabel lays out the reasons why her charity is worth Theresa’s time. Then the CEO interrupts a litany of disease stats to discuss a lobster shortage for her child’s reception with her assistant, and…well, remember that part about righteous anger? The disbelief is palpable. The urge to scream choice obscenities about entitlement are burbling to the surface. Then, knowing she has to bear this to get her wards the help they need, she buries it all. (All of this happens before our eyes, and without a word.) Still, Theresa wants to revisit the numbers. Why doesn’t Isabel postpone her trip back home for a few days? Better yet, why not come to the wedding over the weekend?

And this brings us to Look No. 3, which occurs shortly after Isabel arrives late for the ceremony. Sitting in the back, she notices that the bride’s dad seems familiar. A little too familiar. He recognizes her, and is immediately shook. They try to surreptitiously talk to each other, but keep getting interrupted. Isabel attempts to keep her cool, which seems increasingly harder to do. Then the bride gives a speech, and suddenly, an even deeper expression of recognition crosses the guest’s face….

Those who’ve seen Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated original know what happens next, though they might note how swapping the genders this time around — the 2006 version cast Mads Mikkelsen and Rolf Lassgård in the lead roles — gives the story’s familial elements a much different resonance. For those who haven’t, it’s still pretty clear where this blend of Sirkian melodrama and actors’ showcase is going, and that from here on in, audiences are in for another round of When Great Actors Give Very Good Performances in OK Films. It’s all over but the shouting, as well as a swerve into TV-movie territory, some unavoidable maudlin interludes and a crying jag scene that kicks the histrionics meter into the red.

A lot of potentially interesting material is left on the table (we find out why Isabel ended up saving kids in India, but very little about what cultural landmines a Westerner with a bindi and a Messiah complex might trod upon) and precious little is added to the the source material’s narrative. After the Wedding knows that it has to leave the heavy lifting to the actors, which is why we get Julianne Moore giving a masterclass on the art of the Vodka tantrum and Billy Crudup investing a sense of melancholia in his boho golden boy. As for Abby Quinn, everything she does here is proof that her who’s-that? turn in Landline (2017) wasn’t a one-off, and that she’ll find lovely little bits of business even in regrettably unformed roles.

But this is Williams’ spotlight, and it’s worth slogging through some of the soapier-to-sludgier aspects to watch her ply her craft. The way she can simultaneously seem transparent and withholding, steel-backed and seconds away from breaking down, enraged and empathetic is indeed awe-inspiring, despite the rickety vehicle in which she’s demonstrating these balancing acts. Pedigree or no, After the Wedding is eventually revealed to be just another glossy mediocrity suffused with upper-crust guilt. After the movie’s over, however, you can’t quite shake how Williams has made you think it’s a better work than it is.

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Movie Review – After the Wedding (2019)

August 19, 2019 by Robert Kojder

After the Wedding , 2019.

Written and Directed by Bart Freundlich. Starring Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Abby Quinn, Alex Esola, Eisa Davis, Susan Blackwell, Azhy Robertson, Will Chase, and Doris McCarthy.

A manager of an orphanage in Kolkata travels to New York to meet a benefactor.

There’s a difference between flawed likable characters and straight-up annoying characters; After the Wedding contains the latter. Written and directed by Bart Freundlich (remaking a relatively sanitized version of Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated Danish original), the narrative throws one revelation after another at the audience with each one intending to add moral complexity to its central characters, instead, making them out to be horrible selfish liars. You know you got problems when one protagonist is a do-gooder running an orphanage in India and valiantly trying to secure funds to enrich their lives, and even that person makes decisions that are head-scratching and ignore the bigger picture.

That saintlike figure would be Isabel (Michelle Williams), a compassionate woman that has apparently abandoned whatever life she had in America to make a difference for these impoverished youngsters. Her connection to them has grown so deep, she has actually become a surrogate mother to one of the boys. Nevertheless, if she is going to bring in a whopping $2 million to make some more positive changes for the community, she has to swallow her pride and take a brief trip to New York and meet with a multimillionaire media mogul names Theresa (Julianne Moore).

It’s clear what After the Wedding is attempting to do; it wants to juxtapose the lifestyles of the wealthy self-centered with those that come from nothing and have nothing fighting to make a change and believing in causes more important than the individual. Isabel is introduced hanging around the orphans and meditating, while Theresa is first seen asserting her dominance inside of a conference call and then singing along to Lady Gaga on the radio as she heads home. Their first encounter expands on this; Isabel is concerned about finalizing the deal and heading back to what she perceives to be home (she also doesn’t want to miss the birthday of what is essentially her adoptive child), whereas Theresa seems to take interest yet prioritizes her daughter’s upcoming wedding. She’s living in her own world, casually inviting Isabel to the wedding for no apparent reason, as if the celebration is equivalent to winning a golden ticket to the Willy Wonka chocolate factory.

Perhaps problematically, After the Wedding further strays from the plotline of bettering the lives for the children at the orphanage, as a web of lies arises involving nearly every major character. There are supporting terms from Billy Crudup as a sculptor artist husband, Abby Quinn as the bride-to-be daughter, Alex Esola as the lucky groom, and a few more smaller performances here and there. More importantly, the cast from top to bottom puts in strong work (although Julianne Moore takes the melodrama over-the-top towards the end), so it’s hard to fault After the Wedding on that front but it is frustrating that talented actors are being wasted on such horribly written characters. Grace (Abby Quinn) generates so much sympathy that has nothing to do with the performance, and that’s accounting for the fact that it’s the best one in the movie; she is the scrutiny of so many terrible decisions that were out of her control that you will be sitting there silently hoping her newly wedded husband will turn out to be a good person and take her away from all of these buffoons.

Nearly everyone is harboring a secret here, and the ones that don’t have their own offputting characteristics. Unfortunately, nothing really comes from that outside of decent acting. There’s maybe one strong sequence in the entire film, as the circumstances of the story force Grace (by the way, she is named that for a very specific reason that will most likely have your eyes rolling into the back of your head) to bond with Isabel, with those interactions standing out. To be fair, anything with Grace is usually remotely engaging by nature due to the numerous life-altering developments announcing themselves in her life. Naturally, it’s also going to take a toll on her fresh marriage (except none of that is handled well considering the movie has too many other characters to juggle).

Abby Quinn’s head-spiraling and confused turn is not enough to save After the Wedding (she tries her best though, including writing and singing a song that plays over the credits), as the proceedings consistently get more irritating. Isabel contemplates not taking the money for childish reasons that fail to understand the greater purpose of what she is trying to accomplish, Theresa throws money at every single one of life’s problems (it doesn’t help that everything about her character arc is entirely predictable), Dad is not the perfect father he paints himself as, and somewhere off in a corner of the movie is the orphanage and its characters that deserve more screentime. The troubling aspect is that everyone that signed on to After the Wedding probably thought they were “woke” for doing so, when the movie is exactly the opposite, failing to thoughtfully explore family ideals, cultural divides, societal classes, and whatever else it touches on.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated Patreon , or email me at [email protected]

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After The Wedding Review

01 Nov 2019

After The Wedding (2019)

A remake of Susanne Bier ’s Dogme 95 original of the same name, After The Wedding is what a soap opera would look like if it were made by A-list talent. Changing up the gender of the main characters of Bier’s original, Bart Freundlich ’s do-over benefits from the presence of Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore , but their class works against a script that incrementally amps up the melodrama until it reaches levels of ludicrousness that even Ramsay Street might baulk at.

The film starts impressively in India — drone shots ahoy — with caring orphanage worker Isabel (Williams) leaving her kids to go to the US to raise much-needed funds. She arrives in New York to meet stinking-rich potential investor Theresa (Moore), who subsequently invites Isabel to her daughter’s swanky wedding. What happens next is that the revelations, coincidences and awkward truths pile up on top of each other in such a mechanical, manipulative way that the film feels simultaneously too much yet also under-nourished.

The film’s saving grace is the two central performances, Williams suggesting Isabel has hidden tumult beneath her serene demeanour and Moore once again revealing her genius at playing hard yet fragile characters. Yet the sense of restraint is at odds with the material. After The Wedding might have been more entertaining if Freundlich had let rip and played the big twists and turns for all their emotional worth. Sometimes drone shots and tasteful furnishings are no substitute for a good old slanging match.

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‘after the wedding’: film review | sundance 2019.

Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams star in Bart Freundlich's gender-reversed remake of 'After the Wedding,' the 2006 Susanne Bier chronicle of a complicated philanthropic exchange.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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'After the Wedding' Review | Sundance 2019

In Danish director Susanne Bier ‘s Oscar-nominated 2006 film After the Wedding , the antsy camerawork and editing suggested a link to the raw aesthetics of her countrymen’s Dogme 95 manifesto, while the pivotal scene of a large family gathering during which uncomfortable secrets come to light recalled the first and one of the best examples of that movement, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration . Bart Freundlich ‘s American remake of the Bier film flips the gender of the main characters, yielding predictably strong performances from Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams but otherwise removing the teeth from a melodrama that grows increasingly preposterous as it crawls toward its weepy conclusion.

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Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore in After the Wedding.

After the Wedding review – basically, it's Eat Pray Love 2

An insufferable, implausible and treacly romantic-drama, with Michelle Williams running an orphanage in India and Julianne Moore as her benefactor

T his entirely insufferable film is a sugary Hollywood remake of the 2006 Danish drama After the Wedding , which was directed by Susanne Bier and starred Mads Mikkelsen as a troubled aid worker running a cash-strapped charity in Mumbai, summoned back to Copenhagen for what seems like a miraculous meeting with a rich benefactor. The film switches genders, which makes a central plot point much less plausible, and it has no idea about what facial expression the now female lead is supposed to have. The mystery has been dialled down, the treacle dialled up, and what we are left with is basically Eat Pray Love 2.

Michelle Williams plays Isabel, an American who runs an orphanage in India. She bears a constant expression of sorrowing concern, injured sensitivity and pained disapproval of other people’s ethical compromises which at all times gives her, to quote the Yorkshire expression, a face like a smacked arse. It gets even worse when she is offered millions of dollars by a wealthy American corporation, and is forced to travel to New York and stay in a fancy hotel at the corporation’s expense to discuss the details.

The charitable plutocrat turns out to be Theresa (Julianne Moore), who is married to hip artist Oscar (Billy Crudup), and Theresa impulsively invites Isabel to the wedding of their daughter Grace (Abby Quinn), adding that all discussions concerning their donation can wait until after the wedding. Yet there are dramatic disclosures and developments during the ceremony, and hurt and healing, tears and laughter and more tears – and a scattering of anguished yelps in the cinema auditorium.

After the Wedding was adapted and directed by Bart Freundlich, husband of Julianne Moore, and he has form with sucrose romantic drama, so we can’t say we weren’t warned.

After the Wedding is released in the UK on 1 November.

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‘After the Wedding’ review: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams lift up soapy remake

Movie review.

One of the more curious of the recent crop of gender-flipped remakes is “After the Wedding,” an emotional drama based on the 2007 Danish-language film directed by Susanne Bier. In that film, a man devoted to his work at an orphanage in India returns home to Denmark to meet with a wealthy businessman who’s interested in making a large donation. During the visit, the orphanage worker gets a casual invitation to the businessman’s daughter’s society wedding that weekend — and discovers, in the sort of plot twist that soap operas specialize in, that he is intimately connected to this family. Twelve years later, American filmmaker Bart Freundlich has moved the primary setting from Denmark to New York, changed the two leading male characters to female, and cast Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore (his real-life wife) in the roles.

And … well, the story’s still as soapy as laundry day, but let’s face it: A lot of us would happily watch Williams and Moore doing laundry. (Just imagine the nuanced frowns over mystifying stains, the meticulous attention to detail while folding, the burst-of-sunshine smiles over a job well done.) These two, who’ve been lighting up screens for years (most recently “Gloria Bell” for Moore and TV’s “Fosse/Verdon” for Williams), are always a joy to watch. Their acting choices are perpetually interesting , even if the project they’re in isn’t, and “After the Wedding” is basically a chance to watch them spark off each other.

Williams, as orphanage worker Isabel, seems to get physically smaller when she arrives in New York; her ease is gone, replaced with a quiet wariness. Moore’s Theresa, a wealthy media mogul, has learned to blend her own intensity with an elaborate casualness; she’s whip-quick to berate a long-suffering assistant, but barely gives her a glance. There’s a lot of yelling, a perfect drunk scene (by Moore), a full complement of scenes in which the two just warily eye each other, and plenty of opportunity to revel in the detail each actor brings to her work: Moore’s way of making us love a character we don’t particularly like; a long, gorgeous close-up in which Williams lets little bursts of joy pierce through Isabel’s armor.

Is “After the Wedding” a great movie? No, not especially. Are these two women treasures of cinema? Absolutely.

★★★ “ After the Wedding ,” with Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, Abby Quinn, Alex Esola. Written and directed by Bart Freundlich, based on the Danish-language film “After the Wedding,” directed by Susanne Bier and written by Anders Thomas Jensen. 112 minutes. Rated PG-13 for thematic material and some strong language. Opens Aug. 23 at the Meridian.

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‘After the Wedding’ Review: Michelle Williams Shines in Middling Remake

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics releases the film on Friday, August 9.

There’s a scene in Danish director Susanne Bier’s 2006 “ After the Wedding ” where one of the main characters, facing a terrible revelation, melts into tears and heaves an ocean of sobs. The same waterworks land on schedule in the 2019 English-language remake, which swaps the genders of the main characters but doesn’t mess with its melodramatic swings. By the time Julianne Moore cries her eyes out, “After the Wedding” has already established that its biggest update is a new set of faces embracing the opportunity to showboat.

They do their best with a faithful adaptation that maintains sufficient intrigue for its first half, thanks to a series of gradual revelations that distinguished the original. Bart Freundlich gives wife and frequent collaborator Moore plenty of room to dig in, and she’s matched by a formidable Michelle Williams , who tackles a role originated by Mads Mikkelsen. As Isabel, a low-key woman who runs an orphanage in India, Williams spends much of the movie mystified, angry, and repelled by affluent entrepreneur Theresa (Moore), while Billy Crudup splits the difference between them with a measured turn as Moore’s husband, Oscar. The actors work overtime to mine substance from an overwrought scenario.

Still, “After the Wedding” amounts to easy viewing, strung together with a smooth visual style and the script’s workmanlike pace. Having established Isabel’s tranquil existence at the Indian orphanage, the movie establishes its first big twist when she receives a random call from Theresa, a New York-based media mogul who demands Isabel visit her to discuss a multimillion-dollar investment in the orphanage’s future. The mystery of that abrupt offer leads Isabel to confront her past in most unexpected fashion (unless you’re seen the original).

While reticent to leave the child she has nurtured from a young age, Isabel begrudgingly makes the trip, and finds herself in an unpredictable situation once she makes it out west: The fast-talking Theresa resists her prior commitment to make a donation until Isabel sticks around for the weekend to attend the marriage of the would-be patron’s daughter, Grace (Abby Quinn). There, Isabel makes a shocking discovery that takes the drama in a far more personal direction, and anyone hoping to preserve that revelation should stop here — but know that it’s not the only big twist that this schematic emotional rollercoaster has in store.

Isabel had a teen romance with Oscar, and while the pair gave their child up for adoption in her infancy, Oscar recovered her after the pair broke up. Grace has been raised to believe her real mother died, and Isabel had no idea that her daughter was raised by her father in the first place. Once all the convoluted pieces of this triangle have been laid out, Freundlich cedes control to Williams as Isabel wrestles with sudden motherhood and whether it comes equipped with immediate responsibilities. Plus: Why did Theresa bring her out here in the first place?

The answer to that question arrives late in the game, and does a disservice to the idea of burgeoning parenthood that makes some of the initial scenes click. At times, Isabel’s disgust for the wealthy surroundings that dominate the family’s world hint at the potential for a dark materialist satire, especially once she confronts Oscar about it. “There are people with money and principles,” she shoots back at him. If only the movie dug more into this philosophical conflict; instead, it hovers in mounting tensions between Theresa and Isabel, who resists the older woman’s desire to finance Isabel’s entire existence until she’s trapped by genuine concern for the future of all concerned parties. There are flashes of subtle resentment to Williams’ performance that register as some of her best work in ages, so it’s unfortunate that the movie’s calculated assemblage of sentimental beats dominate the show.

Of course, there’s an audience for this sort of unapologetic schmaltz, as Bier already proved; viewed on its own terms, the remake does competent lip-service to the original. Like Moore’s recent work in another English-language remake, the endearing shot-for-shot remake of Chilean sensation “Gloria,” Freundlich’s project seemingly alters the material with a major update that should theoretically transform “After the Wedding” into a story of strong-willed women. Instead, it’s a slavish imitation of a story about strong-willed men, with talented women at once outshining the material and highlighting its limitations all over again.

“After the Wedding” premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

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After the Wedding Parent Guide

After a suspenseful, edgy start, the film devolves into made-for-tv emotional soup..

Isabel is a dedicated volunteer for an orphanage in India. When she hears of a wealthy donor, she travels to New York to plead her case. But this donation comes with strings attached...

Release date August 29, 2019

Run Time: 110 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

Isabel (Michelle Williams) works at an orphanage in India, meditating with the children, soothing the more traumatized orphans, and distributing food to youngsters in the poorest neighborhoods. Her life is rich in meaning and personal satisfaction. Then she is informed that a wealthy American is considering a two million dollar donation to the orphanage, but Isabel must travel to the US to discuss the donation in person. Arriving in New York City, Isabel meets high flying entrepreneur Theresa (Julianne Moore), who is so busy with her daughter’s impending wedding that she invites Isabel to the festivities to get better acquainted. But when Isabel arrives for the happy event, she gets way more than she bargained for…

Normally, I would say the wedding is where the plot thickens because that’s where the real story unfolds. But, in this film, the wedding is where the movie begins to fray. The early portion of the film has an ominous feel that effectively communicates tension and uncertainty. But after the wedding, as the central intrigue of the plot is revealed, the film goes from being a taut, suspenseful film with a potentially dangerous edge to something that feels like made-for-TV emotional soup.

Potential audiences for After the Wedding will be relieved by the virtual absence of serious violence or sexual content. The biggest concerns parents will have center around profanity and alcohol consumption. Unusually for a PG-13 film, After the Wedding contains two sexual expletives: it may have escaped an R rating because there are relatively few other profanities. As for alcohol, it appears frequently in the movie. Almost all characters imbibe in social settings and main characters drink to excess in emotionally difficult situations.

Despite these negative content issues, parents will be pleased with the positive messages delivered in the movie. The importance of family; the strength that comes from the bonds between spouses and between parents and children are evident. The need for honesty, for acknowledging mistakes and taking ownership of one’s decisions are also made crystal clear in the story. It’s too bad these messages aren’t married to a more plausible plot.

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Kirsten hawkes, watch the trailer for after the wedding.

After the Wedding Rating & Content Info

Why is After the Wedding rated PG-13? After the Wedding is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for thematic material and some strong language

Violence: There is no violence in the film; a few characters raise their voices on a couple of occasions. A woman bullies her employee. Children mention killing in a video game. A child gets into a fight with other children who tease him for bedwetting. Sexual Content: No sexual activity in the movie. Mention of a child born out of wedlock. A man hugs and kisses his fiancée. Parents hug their daughter. A woman is shown in the bathtub but only her feet and shoulders are visible. Her husband jumps into the tub, fully clothed, and embraces her. There is a mention of child prostitution in the context of alleviating poverty. A man mentions being “horny” to his wife. Profanity: There are just over a dozen profanities in this movie including six terms of deity, four scatological words, one term of deity, and two sexual expletives. Alcohol / Drug Use: There are frequent scenes of social drinking. Characters sometimes get drunk to deal with stress. A main character takes appropriate prescription medication on several occasions. A person mentions suicide.

Page last updated March 31, 2021

After the Wedding Parents' Guide

What do you think of Theresa’s behavior? Do you think she is caring or controlling? Planning ahead or manipulating and micromanaging others? What do you think you would do in her place?

What do you think of Isabel’s choice? Would you have made the same decision?

Are you interested in helping orphans in India and other countries? There are ways to help by donating cash or time.

Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity provides opportunities to work with the poor throughout the world.

Homes of Hope India is a charity that builds orphanages and provides education for girls in India.

Miracle Foundation provides care for orphans around the world and builds community systems to help find homes and families for the children.

Loved this movie? Try these books…

Isabel is not alone in finding meaning helping the poor in India. The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre tells the story of an American doctor who finds peace helping the poor in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata).

Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders takes readers along with the volunteers who risk their lives providing medical care to people in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. Writer Dan Bortolotti gives a moving look at Doctors Without Borders, known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) which was founded in 1971 by French doctors who were determined to offer medical care to everyone in need, even those in war zones or territories where they were forbidden entry. Damien Brown gives a first-person account of his work with MSF in Band-Aid for a Broken Leg” Being a Doctor with No Borders (and Other Ways to Stay Single).

The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright is a heart-wrenching novel about a seven year old boy who is kidnapped from his village, sold to a children’s home, and eventually adopted by an American family. But he never forgets his family in India.

The most recent home video release of After the Wedding movie is November 12, 2019. Here are some details…

Netflix’s most addictive movie of 2024 is now streaming. Here’s why you need to watch it

Thrillers come in all shapes and sizes. There’s the psychological or serial killer thriller, which was popularized in the ’90s by The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en . There’s the erotic thriller, which had its heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s with such hits as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct . And then there’s the action thriller, which is probably the most popular offshoot of the genre right now, with the Taken series and Salt as prime examples.

The story everyone is after

A tense standoff, a killer cast, more than just an effective thriller.

Recently, there’s been a revival of a subgenre that’s been dormant since the 1970s: the journalism thriller. From Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal to the Oscar-winning Spotlight to 2022’s She Said, this type of thriller usually centers around journalists pursuing a controversial and sometimes dangerous story. One of the best journalism thrillers has just been released by Netflix : Scoop . In chronicling how the BBC managed to snag the scoop of the decade by interviewing Prince Andrew about his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the movie manages to be suspenseful, informative, and one of 2024’s most purely entertaining films.

If your memory is foggy, or if you don’t follow royal scandals or the news on a regular basis, here’s the real-life event that Scoop depicts. In late 2019, Prince Andrew was interviewed by British journalist Emily Maitlis about his decades-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a rich American financier who had been convicted of being a sex offender and, that August, had died under mysterious circumstances while in prison.

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The interview was aired on the BBC program Newsnight on November 19 and immediately received worldwide attention for Andrew’s odd explanations for his behavior and unwillingness to show any sympathy toward Epstein’s victims. For example, in response to an allegation that he sweated on an underage girl at a dance club, he asserted that he doesn’t sweat, ever , so that couldn’t possibly be true.

The consequences of the interview were devastating for Prince Andrew. After it aired, he was stripped of his royal titles and receded from public view. The royal establishment took yet another public beating, with some wondering why taxpayer money was funding a member who seemingly partook in illegal activities with Epstein and yet didn’t experience any legal ramifications. Almost everyone, both in the U.K. and across the world, asked the same question: why on Earth would someone as private and protected as Prince Andrew agree to such an interview in the first place?

Scoop is a two-hour-long answer to that question. It starts in 2010 in New York City, when an enterprising paparazzo photographs Andrew and Epstein together walking in Central Park, establishing a clear and public link between the two men. That picture is remembered by Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), a talent booker for the BBC, who smells a story developing with Epstein’s ongoing trial, subsequent conviction, and eventual death, which puts pressure on Andrew to address his controversial association with the sex offender.

Scoop presents two sides of the story: the BBC journalists, represented by McAlister, Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), and editor Esme Wren (Romola Garai); and the Royal Family, who, aside from Andrew (Rufus Sewell), is almost entirely run by Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), who is torn between duty and a gradual realization her boss is a sleazebag.

As we see the two sides circle each other warily, the movie’s director, Philip Martin, never lets up on the tension felt both within the opposing ranks as well as when they intermittently meet to decide on if, when, and how the interview will take place. It’s genuinely thrilling to see McAlister chase her story and for the other journalists to pick up the baton after her part is largely finished. As the interview is set up, Maitlis wryly observes that it feels like she’s going to a gunfight in an old Western movie. And that’s what the interview comes down to: two people facing each other, one armed with facts and the other with a ludicrous defense and a complete lack of awareness that he’s done anything wrong.

This kind of thriller doesn’t work if you don’t have a great cast, which is why Scoop is so effective. Anderson continues to add to her already impressive resume as Maitlis, who has to navigate the fine line between respecting the institution she’s investigating and getting answers to questions everyone in the nation has been asking for years. When Andrew casually wonders why everyone is so interested in his relationship with Epstein when he’s far better friends with Jimmy Savile (a DJ who was also a sex offender), Anderson gives an incredulous look to her producer that’s at once very funny and incredibly revealing. She can’t believe this guy is so delusional about the serious situation he’s in, and she uses that knowledge in her interview to let Andrew symbolically hang himself with his own rope.

It’s Piper, though, who impresses the most as McAlister. Armed with leopard print boots, bottle blonde curls, and a don’t-mess-with-me attitude, she sticks out among her conservative BBC peers, but it’s precisely her outsider status and her willingness to chase after a story when no one else dares to pursue it that makes her such a great character to follow. She’s the only one that Scoop allows us to see at home, where she confides to her mother about wanting to be seen as important and tries to guide her teenage son through the first pangs of romance.

Piper is probably best known in the U.S. for her work as the companion Rose Tyler on Doctor Who , but she’s quietly put together an impressive CV with standout performances in The Secret Diary of a Call Girl , Collateral , and I Hate Suzie . In Scoop , she leads an ensemble with an authority and brassiness that only a star could deliver. Scoop is revelatory in many ways, but perhaps its biggest shock to most audiences is just how good Piper is and how good she’s always been.

Like all good thrillers, Scoop is more than its subject matter. While it faithfully and expertly re-enacts the lead-up to, and quick production of, the interview with Prince Andrew, it also poses intriguing arguments about the state of journalism and the culpability of public figures to own up to their past sins. Everyone knows and respects the BBC, but that doesn’t make it profitable or competitive with other news outlets and social media, and it’s this conundrum — the need for relevance while still preserving a brand of integrity — that drives many of Scoop ‘s characters.

In addition, Scoop is in many ways a sister to Steven Spielberg ‘s The Post and She Said , to other movies about the need for journalism to hold public figures like Richard Nixon, Harvey Weinstein, and yes, the Royal Family, accountable for their actions. It’s not wrong to categorize Scoop as a thriller — its slick direction and propulsive score by Anne Nikitin and Hannah Peel more than supports that justification — but it’s also a great movie about the value and necessity of a free press in the 21st century. Who knew a dramatic retelling of a five-year-old interview could be so thrilling to watch and so rich to think about?

Watch Scoop on Netflix now.

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If staying at home is more your vibe, there's always streaming. Hulu has some of the best films around, and the following three movies are worth a watch this weekend. One is a tense 2010s thriller, another is a teen tom-com from the '90s, and the final recommended movie is a cheesy yet fun horror movie. The Dinner (2017)

April is here, and Netflix is still going strong in 2024. Blockbuster shows like The Gentlemen and original movies like Damsel made the streamer dominant in March, and this month will continue that streak with the debut of the thriller series Ripley and the investigative drama Scoop.

If you're looking for older movies that are just as good if not better, this list is for you. Digital Trends has compiled a selection of three underrated movies on Netflix that are worth watching this weekend. One's a black comedy from 2023, another is a killer 1980s thriller, and the last one is a charming rom-com.

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Woody Allen, Reputation Bruised, Finds Muted Reception to 50th Film

“Coup de Chance,” a milestone, is being released in the United States after opening in Europe months ago.

Woody Allen, wearing black glasses, a blue button-up shirt and yellow slacks, stands in front of a large poster for his movie “Coup de Chance.”

By Marc Tracy

This weekend, 13 movie theaters around the country will be showing “Coup de Chance,” a brisk French-language thriller about a bored wife in Paris who cheats on her wealthy, aloof husband with an old high school classmate, triggering fatal consequences.

Minus the opening credits and certain trademark elements — jazzy score, moneyed setting, themes of murder and luck, dry cosmopolitan banter — a typical viewer could watch the movie without knowing it is the 50th film directed by Woody Allen.

The foreign language (one in which Allen is not fluent — his original script was translated for filming), the absence of the kinds of American stars that typically crowd Allen’s casts, the low-key reception with which this milestone has been greeted: All suggest the awkwardness surrounding this new release by a filmmaker as distinctive as he is polarizing.

“We just continue to do what we’ve been doing, and we’re happy that it’s opening,” Letty Aronson, Allen’s sister, who has produced his films since 1994, said in an interview this week. She said “Coup de Chance” was financed in Europe, and declined to disclose its backers.

“I’m happy that it’s opening,” she added. “Woody is only interested in the creative part — once that’s done and he makes the film, he never sees it again. If you told him it wasn’t opening in the United States, it wouldn’t matter to him.”

Allen, 88, has a more than half-century career as a writer and director of influential classics such as “Annie Hall” (1977) and “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989). A late period commencing with 2005’s “Match Point” has featured collaborations with stars like Scarlett Johansson, Timothée Chalamet and Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for “Blue Jasmine” (2013). Allen’s 2011 comedy “Midnight in Paris” brought him his fourth Oscar, for original screenplay, and took in more than $150 million worldwide — a megahit by the standards of independent cinema.

But for many filmgoers, affection for his movies has been overshadowed by allegations against him personally. In 1992, his daughter Dylan Farrow, then 7, said Allen had sexually assaulted her, months after he had begun a relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the 21-year-old daughter of Mia Farrow, his former partner and Dylan’s mother. (Previn is now Allen’s wife of 26 years.)

Following an inquiry by child-abuse investigators at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Allen was never prosecuted. He denies having assaulted Dylan Farrow. He and his defenders have suggested Mia Farrow coached their daughter.

For decades, Dylan Farrow’s accusation, as well as Allen’s relationship with Previn, did not appear to hinder Allen’s ability to make movies — between 1982 and 2017, there were no calendar years when a new feature film directed by Allen was not released. His mainstream reputation remained largely intact until 2014, when Dylan Farrow, as an adult, reiterated her accusation (which was published on a New York Times Opinion columnist’s blog) shortly after Allen received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes.

“What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?” Farrow wrote. “Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.”

Amid the #MeToo moment three years later, and following another essay by Farrow — this one asking, “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?” — many film critics pointed to Allen as the quintessential instance of the emerging question: how to consider the work and legacy of an important, even beloved artist who stood accused of unforgivable acts?

Actors Chalamet and Rebecca Hall announced they would donate their salaries from “A Rainy Day in New York” (2019), and other past collaborators, including Kate Winslet, Mira Sorvino, Colin Firth and Greta Gerwig publicly expressed regret at having worked with Allen. (Still others, including Diane Keaton, who played Annie Hall, continued to defend him.)

In 2018, Amazon dissolved a multimillion-dollar movie agreement with Allen, citing a renewed focus on the allegations, and the next year dropped “A Rainy Day in New York.”

It is far from clear that audiences have decisively turned on Allen. “A Rainy Day in New York,” a romantic comedy starring Chalamet, Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez, with a different distributor made nearly $25 million at the box office outside North America, where its footprint was far smaller.

“Coup de Chance” (it means “stroke of luck”) premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival to a seven-minute standing ovation and protests outside. It opened months ago in France, Spain and a dozen other countries. On Friday, theaters in seven states will show it, including Quad Cinema in Allen’s adopted borough of Manhattan. It will be available to stream beginning April 12.

Allen’s 50th film may not even prove his last. A new movie, Aronson said, “is in the process of being negotiated.”

Aronson added, “Woody is working on a script. So we’ll see what happens.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the age of Soon-Yi Previn when she and Allen began a romantic relationship. She was 21, not a teenager.

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Marc Tracy is a Times reporter covering arts and culture. He is based in New York. More about Marc Tracy

Screen Rant

The beast review: the world is always ending in this sweeping sci-fi romance.

A centuries-spanning romantic odyssey that is equal parts strange sci-fi and melodrama, Bertrand Bonello's The Beast is unclassifiable and refreshing.

The Beast examines past lives' influence on the present, focusing on a central pair's history.
The film mixes genres excitingly, with horror constantly looming in each story.
The fear depicted in The Beast reflects contemporary anxieties, emphasizing the importance of feeling over forgetting.

The Beast is an apt title for a film that often feels untamable. A centuries-spanning romantic odyssey that is equal parts strange sci-fi and high melodrama, Bertrand Bonello's film is unclassifiable, wild, and refreshing. The French director examines how the past never stays in the past and how the baggage we attempt to rid ourselves of from moment to moment, or even from life to life, will inevitably rear its oft-ugly head.

The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay).

Though spanning centuries, The Beast brings modern fears into the story
Léa Seydoux and George MacKay are excellent
The Beast knows how to balance its sci-fi and romance
The film lovingly highlights the importance of feelings and not forgetting

The Beast Moves Through Time To Unveil The Past Lives Of Its Central Pair

How they influence the present is just as important.

In 2044, Gabrielle ( Léa Seydoux ) is trying to rid herself of that baggage through a procedure that purifies a person's DNA, purging the patient of leftover emotions from their past lives. This procedure will rid her of these past traumas that cause Gabrielle to feel a lingering sense of doom in the present day. What that doom entails remains a mystery, but she's not the only one hoping to temper feelings of disquiet.

Gabrielle encounters Louis (George MacKay) while prepping for the procedures, and she is drawn to the man with an air of familiarity about him. When she finally dives into her past lives, we see her encounter different versions of Louis that change the course of her various lives. First, the pair meet in Belle-Époque-era Paris. In another life, Louis is an incel stalking Gabrielle as she house-sits a Los Angeles mansion while working as an actress.

The Beast Plays With Genre In Increasingly Exciting Ways

But the inevitability of horror lies around every corner.

In all of these lives, Gabrielle is near fatalistic in her conviction that some bad thing will befall her. The Beast 's real terror, though, comes from actualizing this feeling in its various tales. Whispers of Paris flooding follow Gabrielle and Louis in the early 20th century. Misogyny and violence hover over Gabrielle's life in 2014 Los Angeles. The threat of control follows her everywhere in 2044. The film's score and sound design are unsettling as they mimic or even impact what's happening onscreen.

All of these disparate elements feel like they shouldn't work together, but it's their discordant qualities that allow The Beast to coalesce into a symphony of anxiety.

Tight string arrangements follow Gabrielle as she's stalked through the Los Angeles mansion. Sweeping orchestral music accompanies Louis and Gabrielle's outings in Paris and deep synths serve as a backdrop for the film's minimalist future. All of these disparate elements feel like they shouldn't work together, but it's their discordant qualities that allow The Beast to coalesce into a symphony of anxiety.

In The Beast, The Apocalypse Is A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The end is just the beginning.

The world is always ending in The Beast, and it's easy to see our own world reflected in the ones portrayed by Bonello. Seydoux's dialed-in performance — detached but all too aware — ensures that we are never too comfortable. Gabrielle's anxieties are much like our own — sea levels rising, political unrest, the erosion of the truth and empathy. Ironic detachment is the mode of our times, but when the irony disappears and all that remains is indifference, the world starts to feel a lot like the future in The Beast .

Even the film itself begins with detachment personified. In 2014, Gabrielle films a scene for what appears to be a horror movie, but in place of the empty house and horrifying monster, the floor and background are green screen. The director asks if she can be afraid of something that isn't really there. Gabrielle says she can. The fear we create in our heads is just as real as the fear created by a world in disarray. Those fears can manifest in people, in world-ending events, or in ideologies.

12 Best Sci-Fi Movies Of 2023

By the end, The Beast knows that this fear — Gabrielle's and our own — is not something that can be purged. It is this fear that allows Gabrielle to be sincere, to search for meaning in a world where it is being sucked out of the air. In 2044, Artificial Intelligence rules the world after an unspecified catastrophe.

This catastrophe isn't the one Gabrielle is afraid of, but it is one that perhaps influenced her fear of the future. Our minds are always searching for something to be afraid of. Sometimes we need that fear. Bonello posits that, even in fear, feeling is more important than forgetting, and every little death is a door to another future.

The Beast opens in select theaters on Friday, April 5, expanding to more theaters on April 12.

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Movie Reviews

'coup de chance' is a typical woody allen film — with one appalling final detail.

Justin Chang

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laâge star in Coup de Chance. GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS hide caption

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laâge star in Coup de Chance.

Once upon a time, it might have been strange to think that the arrival of a new Woody Allen movie in theaters would qualify as some kind of event. But much has changed, especially over the past decade, with renewed focus on allegations that Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow , when she was 7 years old — accusations that the director has long denied. Amazon Studios, which had been distributing Allen's movies, cut ties with him in 2018. His two most recent movies, the critically panned A Rainy Day in New York and Rifkin's Festival, were barely shown in the U.S.

And so it came as something of a surprise when news broke weeks ago that Allen's new movie, the romantic drama-thriller Coup de Chance , would be released in American theaters. The decision probably has something to do with the movie's strong reception last fall at the Venice International Film Festival, where more than one critic called it Allen's best film in years.

Abuse Allegations Revive Woody Allen's Trial By Media

That may not be saying much, given how weak his output has been since Blue Jasmine 11 years ago. But there is indeed an assurance and a vitality to Coup de Chance that hasn't been evident in the director's work in some time. That's partly due to the change of scenery, as Allen's difficulty securing American talent and financing has led him to the more receptive climes of Europe. While he's set movies in France before, this is his first feature shot entirely in French with French actors. It may have been done out of necessity, but it lends a patina of freshness to an otherwise familiar Allen story of guilt, suspicion and inconvenient desire.

It begins with a random reunion on the streets of Paris. Fanny, played by Lou de Laâge, works at an auction house nearby; Alain, played by Niels Schneider, is a writer. (Even if his name weren't Alain, it would be pretty clear that he's the Allen avatar in this story.)

Publisher Drops Woody Allen's Book After Ronan Farrow Objects, Employees Walk Out

This is the first time Fanny and Alain have seen each other since they were high-school classmates in New York years ago, during which time, Alain confesses, he had an intense crush on Fanny. There's an immediate spark between them, but alas, Fanny is now married to a wealthy businessman, Jean, played by Melvil Poupaud.

Before long, Fanny and Alain are having a full-blown affair, taking long lunch breaks in Alain's tiny apartment, which is homier and more appealing to Fanny than the spacious Parisian residence she shares with Jean. They also have a beautiful country house where she and Jean go for regular weekend getaways.

Jean often invites friends along to go hunting in the woods, and even before the rifles come out, it's clear that this romantic triangle is destined to end in violence. Many moviegoers will recognize the elements from films like Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point : an adulterous romance, a premeditated murder and a darkly cynical consideration of the role that luck plays in human affairs. At one point, Jean notes that he doesn't believe in luck at all — which sounds like an echo of the nihilism that has long been at the heart of Woody Allen's work.

Nothing about Coup de Chance is terribly surprising, in other words. It's a decently executed version of a movie Allen has made many times before, enlivened by Vittorio Storaro's elegant if overly burnished-looking cinematography. As you'd expect, there's a lot of jazz and a lot of loftily repetitive dialogue, the effect of which is somewhat neutralized because the actors are speaking French. They all give crisp, engaged performances, especially Valérie Lemercier as Fanny's shrewd mother, who begins to suspect that Jean is not as trustworthy as he appears.

As the story unravels, one appalling detail sticks out. In a few scenes, Jean is shown playing with a large model train set — and as others have pointed out, it seems to evoke a key detail, also involving a train set, from Dylan Farrow's testimony. Could Allen be referencing his own off-screen scandals, and to what purpose? Perhaps, suspecting that he might be done with the movies at long last, as he's hinted in interviews, he wanted to thumb his nose at his detractors with a provocative parting shot. Or maybe it's just a reminder of something that, for better or worse, has always been true about Woody Allen: For all the many, many characters he's introduced us to over the decades, his truest protagonist and subject has always been himself.

Woody Allen

'Monkey Man' review: Underestimate Dev Patel at your own peril after this action movie

In his directorial debut “Monkey Man,” Dev Patel gifts action-movie fans with a multilayered, hyperviolent narrative. Sure, he pulls off a deep dive into Indian mythology, yet he's pretty darn good at attacking goons with fireworks, platform shoes and all manner of sharp objects too.

More “Rocky” than “John Wick,” the gritty and gory revenge thriller (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) is a love letter to his two-fisted influences, from Bruce Lee movies to Asian cult flicks like “Oldboy” and “The Raid.” But the underdog story, produced by Jordan Peele, also shows a bunch of new sides to Patel, who knuckles up as a legit action star and a guy who can make a movie that’s totally cool, occasionally amusing and impressively thoughtful.

'Monkey Man': Dev Patel got physical for his new movie, and he has the broken bones to prove it

Patel also co-wrote the screenplay, a modern take on the mythos of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Kid (Patel) competes in an underground Indian fight club, though his job is mainly to take a bloody beating while wearing a monkey mask and hope his colorful boss Tiger (Sharlto Copley) doesn’t stiff him on pay.

At the same time, our hero is also haunted by the murder of his mom and a traumatic childhood, which fuels Kid’s mission of vengeance to take down those responsible. He gets a chance to infiltrate a repressive political system by working in a high-end brothel and starts causing problems for power players including a narcissistic, no-good celebrity guru (Makarand Deshpande) and a corrupt police chief (Sikander Kher).

With the holiday of Diwali on the way, as well as an important election, they don’t need someone like Kid messing things up. He becomes a wanted man and ends up left for dead in the street, where he’s found by a tribe of trans women who like Kid have been marginalized. Their leader Alpha (Vipin Sharma) nurses him back to health yet also imparts a key lesson: Instead of enduring pain and suffering as his primary existence, Kid needs a purpose in life.

While the piecemeal rollout of Kid’s backstory and bits of the Hanuman tale muddy the plot at first, “Monkey Man” swings into a groove when the main character is at his lowest point. Kid gets himself (and the movie) into gear in a lively montage where he uses a bag of wheat for punching practice as Alpha offers up a nifty percussion accompaniment. (It’s the next best thing to Survivor songs psyching up Rocky Balboa back in the day.)

Thusly inspired and trained, Kid goes on a righteous rampage and literally fights his way to the top floor of the villainous big boss. Patel can craft a mean action sequence, whether between ring ropes as masked men duke it out for crowds, a speedy car chase involving a tuk-tuk named after Nicki Minaj, or Kid kicking, stabbing and brawling his way through hordes of bad guys. As the guy at the center of these battles, the Oscar-nominated Patel ("Lion") never seems or looks out of place, even borrowing Keanu Reeves’ fashionable panache when it comes to gnarly combat couture.

The fact that “Monkey Man” includes social-cultural context, as something meaty to chew on rather than a throwaway thematic thread, is the cherry on top of Patel’s bloody sundae. He’s managed to craft a rare action movie that makes you think and also will joyfully plunge a metal rod into a dude’s brain.

Cast & crew

My Ex-Friend's Wedding

On the eve of their former best friend's wedding, four of their childhood friends receive a drunken voicemail from her, confessing that she believes she is making a mistake. The four friends... Read all On the eve of their former best friend's wedding, four of their childhood friends receive a drunken voicemail from her, confessing that she believes she is making a mistake. The four friends then decide to stop the wedding. On the eve of their former best friend's wedding, four of their childhood friends receive a drunken voicemail from her, confessing that she believes she is making a mistake. The four friends then decide to stop the wedding.

Taylor Jenkins Reid
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