Review by Justin Bateman
Stars John Malkovich, Romain Duris, Lilly Evangeline | Written by Michel Spinosa & Gilles Bourdos
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 103 minutes | Directed by Gilles Bourdos
As a child, Nathan (Duris) nearly died after being hit by a car. After getting married and having children of his own, Nathan’s private life begins to fall apart. Divorced and separated from his family he receives a visit from the mysterious Dr Kay (Malkovich) who claims to know when people are going to die. Nathan is sceptical but slowly realises Kay isn’t a crank after all.
There’s always a danger with tales tinged with the supernatural that they’re going to tip over into the realm of the ridiculous. Afterwards manages to avoid that for a number of reasons. Firstly, although the general premise is somewhat hokey – a white light appears around the person soon to die but this is only visible to ‘messengers’ – the message is sound, that the beauty of life is in the moment, something that we sometimes find out too late. In other hands, this could come across as saccharine but in Gilles Bourdos it’s subtle and moving.
The script, based on a novel by Guillaume Musso, is solid without being spectacular but given every chance to succeed by a talented and experienced cast. John Malkovich plays the doctor with his usual mix of gravitas and weirdness, Duris carries the film and is totally convincing as a man trying to get his life in order while Evangeline Lilly gives good support as his estranged wife. It’s also beautifully shot, Bourdos using colour and contrast to paint a picture of a sort of hyper-reality in line with Nathan’s increasingly heightened and focused view of the world.
Afterwards is not quite the thriller it perhaps wants to be but it does more than enough to maintain the interest throughout, albeit in a somewhat downbeat manner. As a family drama with supernatural twist is works rather well and has some interesting things to say about life and death.
EXTRAS Just the trailer.