Afterwards

Though it boasts an intriguing premise and a typically idiosyncratic performance from John Malkovich, Afterwards suffers from a dull, downright plodding sensibility that ultimately renders its few positive attributes moot. The progressively abstract storyline follows successful lawyer Nathan Del Amico (a hopelessly ineffective Romain Duris) as he encounters a mysterious figure known only as Dr. Kay (Malkovich), with the bulk of the proceedings revolving around Nathan’s efforts at determining the validity of Kay’s supernatural claims. Director Gilles Bourdos, working from a script co-written with Michel Spinosa, has infused Afterwards with an art-house sensibility that inevitably becomes oppressive, as the viewer’s efforts at connecting with the material are consistently thwarted by Bourdos’ relentless use of superfluous cinematic tricks (with the almost painfully deliberate pace only exacerbating such problems). It subsequently goes without saying that one’s patience grows increasingly thin as the movie stumbles towards its anti-climactic conclusion, which effectively ensures that Afterwards, despite the presence of Malkovich and Lost‘s Evangeline Lilly within the cast, possesses few elements designed to capture (and sustain) the interest of most viewers (ie this is virtually the very definition of a pretentious mess).

* out of ****