After

Based on a book by Anna Todd, After follows strait-laced college student Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) as she finds herself falling for fellow student (and unapologetic bad boy) Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) – with the narrative detailing the impact this illicit relationship has on a variety of periphery characters (including Tessa’s concerned mother and Hardin’s sketchy on-again-off-again girlfriend). It’s an often aggressively generic scenario that is, at the outset, employed to surprisingly watchable effect by filmmaker Jenny Gage, as the director, along with scripter Susan McMartin, delivers a far-from-surprising first half that benefits substantially from the leads’ charismatic work (and it doesn’t hurt, certainly, that Langford and Tiffin possess quite a bit of chemistry together). The breezy atmosphere initially compensates for the almost painfully conventional nature of both the storyline and the characters, and yet there does, perhaps inevitably, reach a point at which the pervasive cookie-cutter vibe grows more and more difficult to comfortably overlook – with the absurdly overlong running time ultimately compounding the picture’s various problems (ie this is a film that absolutely should’ve topped out at 80 minutes). It goes without saying, then, that After‘s worn out its welcome long before the admittedly unexpected third-act twist rolls around, with the end result an almost passable misfire that seems unlikely to wholeheartedly win over anyone over a certain age (let’s say 13 or so).

*1/2 out of ****