After We Fell
Just as Tessa's life begins to become unglued, nothing is what she thought it would be. Not her friends nor her family. The only person that she should be able to rely on is Hardin, who is furious when he discovers the massive secret that she's been keeping. Before Tessa makes the biggest decision of her life, everything changes because of revelations about her family.
- Released: 2021-09-01
- Runtime: 99 minutes
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Stars: Josephine Langford, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Chance Perdomo, Carter Jenkins, Kiana Madeira, Stephen Moyer, Louise Lombard, Mira Sorvino, Arielle Kebbel, Frances Turner, Rob Estes, Atanas Srebrev, Anton Kottas, Angela Sari, Emmenuel Todorov, Velizar Nikolaev Biney, Matthew Hall, Simon Fick, Samantha Fries, Ana Ivanova, Clive-Leviev Sawyer, Emmanuel Todorov
- Director: Castille Landon
Comments
- fernandoschiavi - 25 January 2024
Without a story to tell, the film can be read as a romanticization of abusive relationships, and presents conveniences and weaknesses close to involuntary humor
Despite some clichés that can make people roll their eyes in the movie theater, with the insertion of dramas that end up going beyond the protagonist couple's relationship, the third film in the franchise managed to enrich its script, when compared to the first two, and is the best So far, not that it means much.
The big problem with the "After" saga is that it faithfully follows the Fifty Shades of Gray formula, whether in the dark script or in the interaction of the characters. Tessa, like Anastasia Steele, is intelligent, brilliant and a virgin, who needs to start to deal with their sexual discovery with a seemingly irresistible bad boy, capable of abandoning their life plans in the name of this overwhelming love. Hardin, like Christian Grey, has a past of traumas that try to explain his attitudes in the present, however much they may be. Dramas presented without any kind of depth and that most of the time do not justify the selfish, controlling attitudes and self-destructive behavior that end up affecting the lives of their romantic partners. And another thing that "After" copies very well from "Fifty Shades of Gray ", besides being an erotic romance, is the fact that any drama that the script tries to develop (and believe me, in both sagas there are good opportunities that are completely wasted), then the script throws it all away with a sex scene, which As previously stated, it seems to be the solution to any and all types of problems these characters have, thus making any involvement we can have with this story difficult. It's simply unbelievable how the dramas don't develop and director Castille Landon's only concern seems to be how to film the new sex scenes in a different way from what had already been done in the previous films, so she tries to film the film in an extremely artificial way. Main couple having sex in a boxing gym, in the bedroom, in a swimming pool, etc. Landon tries to film the scenes in this chapter in a more aggressive, wild and impactful way, but what she achieves are just poorly choreographed scenes that convey no feeling other than someone else's shame.
To make matters worse, "After We Fell" and its successor "After Ever Happy" suffered major shocks and went through several problems during their pre-production. Both films were shot simultaneously and filming took place between October 4 and December 18, 2020 and the author of the books Anna Todd was removed from the production of the sequels due to conflicts with the studio. To make matters worse, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the studio had to transfer filming from Atlanta to Bulgaria and as a result, some actors had to leave the film's cast and their characters were recast. Shane Paul McGuie who played Landon Gibson in previous productions was replaced by actor Chance Perdomo. Karimah Westbrook, who was filming the CW television series All American, was replaced by actress Frances Turner as Karen Scott, this was the second recast of the character, who in the first film was played by Jennifer Beals. Charlie Weber as Christian Vance was replaced by Stephen Moyer. Selma Blair as Carol Young was replaced by Mira Sorvino. Candice King, who played Kimberly Vance in the second film in the franchise, was replaced by Arielle Kebbel. On October 29, 2020, Dylan Sprouse, played by Trevor Matthews, confirmed that he would not return for the sequels. Kiana Madeira, Carter Jenkins and Angela Sari were added to the cast as Nora DeLaurentis, Robert and Lilian.
In this third film, the level of abusive relationships between the protagonists ends up being raised to the maximum. This is because the couple's initial crisis is that Tessa received a big job offer in another city, but Hardin is vehemently opposed to going with her and even tries to do some emotional blackmail so that she doesn't go, however, it is possible to see a maturity in the main characters and their relationship. Now, about to graduate from college, they need to decide what career path they want to pursue. As expected, each person's ideals take them in opposite directions. Will love be enough to keep this couple together? We know that their lives are full of traumas and problems. In After, released in 2020, the story is narrated through Hardin and we can understand a little more why he is so explosive and excessively jealous. However, all the suffering he went through with his parents as a child does not justify the abusive way, he treats his girlfriend. What is difficult to accept in the story are the scenes of sudden fights for silly reasons, where he blames the girl for his wrong actions.
The novel conveys a curious vision of this privileged and egocentric bourgeoisie, concerned only with themselves and their loves. He loves me? Have you always loved me? Will you continue to love me if I'm in the next town? Can you love another? Will love last? The third film in the teenage saga constitutes a post-modern version of fairy tales, where the princess's objectives are aimed solely at discovering and keeping the prince. Castles were converted into mansions, and horses into luxury carriages. No one has bills to pay, dishes to wash, noisy neighbors - the world around them has been discarded by this idealized conception of romance. Without the concern of presenting the characters, described in the two previous productions, and prevented from ending the plot (since the producers intend to release new sequences), director Castille Landon is content with orchestrating artificial reasons to separate them and bring them together, between small fights and modest declarations of love. Not even the actors seem to believe in the difficulties of their characters: Josephine Langford reaches a level of apathy that didn't exist in previous productions, as if she had actually gone on autopilot. Hero Fiennes Tiffin squints his eyes, contorts his mouth and invests in the image of the poor man victim of the pressures of contemporary society.
"After We Fell" preserves the main feature of the franchise: the shameful image of sex. In an attempt to cross the sensuality (modest, by the way) of Fifty Shades of Gray with the romance of Twilight, the creators arrived at this narrative where young lovers finally have relationships, as long as the camera juggles to hide the nudity and make it palatable to conservative audiences. Sex attracts audiences and sells tickets, on the other hand, it carries the appearance of immorality, needing to be contained, quick and clean. Therefore, lovers have sex with clothes on, in conventional positions, during short scenes where pop music increases the volume to cover their moans and they both reach orgasm at the same time - but they don't get dirty, they don't sweat, they don't mess up their hair. The director offers close-up shots of the hand gripping the sheets, the toes twitching and the biting lips, but nothing beyond these standard signs, so that Tessa remains a respectable girl. Men put on condoms, but never remove them afterwards. There is a certain disgust with fluids, the smell, the texture, the secretions of bodies, a reflection of a laughable moralism to the point that, during masturb*tion on the phone, Tessa and Hero are prohibited from saying a single provocative sentence to each other. They moan softly, and the montage soon cuts to the next day. The main legacy of the saga will be the fact that it nourishes sex as much as it does fear, in a fetishization of the taboo.
In terms of script, the result presents conveniences and weaknesses close to involuntary humor. Richard's (Atanas Srebrev) invasion of the apartment raises some questions - he leaves the door despite having the key to close it; there is a baseball bat resting at the entrance -, Tess's sequence at the doctor is so rushed that it may be due to an editing error (as if post-production did not have enough material to work on the entire scene); and the attempts at humor involving Landon (Chance Perdomo) fail. Although the saga has opted for a different filmmaker in each film, the mise en scene is so aseptic that no creator can go beyond the playbook of chaste sexual relations, many close-ups, conflicts conditioned by dialogue and an uninterrupted soundtrack, bringing the film closer to a long music video for indie pop bands.
Finally, the film can be read as a romanticization of abusive relationships. Much of the thin conflict involving Hardin and Tessa concerns unhealthy jealousy and fear of betrayal: she flirts with the waiter Robert (Carter Jenkins); He makes him jealous when talking to a friend, and later, his girlfriend hangs up the phone when she hears a female voice in the background. The young man fears that his beloved will meet an old lover in Seattle, or that his family will have sex outside of marriage. Towards the climax, a grown woman is shouted at: "You're having sex on the kitchen counter like a sl*t!" A considerable part of these torrid romances is based on the idealization of toxic masculinity, perceived as proof of love. The men in "Fifty Shades (2015 - 2018)", "365 Days (2020)" act aggressively and controllingly, yet the scripts insist that this is natural behavior for a loving man. As a result of this factor and Hardin's moralism, the work appears anachronistic and sexist, coinciding with the control of the female body with a display of affection. Even the suggestion that they both act this way because they are in love and excited is confronted with the apathy of the direction, the performances and the conflicts. The film suggests a torrid story, but the result on screen is far from this excitement. - allmoviesfan - 4 January 2023
After We Fell
Not sure why I'm still watching these. I guess it's like a road accident. You don't want to look but somehow you can't look away. Hardin and Tess are as bad for each other in this instalment as they were in the first two, in some angsty cycle of not being able to live without each other but breaking up anyway, only to get back together again pretty soon after. Oh, and have sex a bit.
There are a few external family issues on both sides that are mildly interesting, but the whole series has gotten dumber and dumber as it goes along. I guess they keep making the films because people keep watching them but if the first one was just okay - I gave it 5 - the rest have been sub-par. Did enjoy seeing Arielle Kebble in this one, though.
