Movie Review - After (2019)

Tons of novels have been adapted into films. Often, movie studios will prefer to do an adaptation, rather than an original story because novels, especially successful ones will have a built-in audience or fans. A lot of those fans will be compelled to buy movie tickets or their hype over the adaptation will fuel interest in others to become movie-goers. The most recent example of this is the adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). That book was turned into a film and went to gross over a half-billion dollars in the box office. It was in fact a smash hit, a blockbuster. It's not surprising that a movie studio would try to replicate that path to success.

That's seemingly what the movie studio behind this film is trying to do. Fifty Shades of Grey was fanfiction. The writer was a fan of something and decided to use her fandom to craft an erotic story, involving some very provocative romantic-infused or romantic-adjacent things. Here, the writer, named Anna Todd, did the same. Her fandom was of Harry Styles, the British pop star from the boy band called One Direction. She decided to use that fandom, as well as a social media app called Wattpad, to craft an erotic story, involving some provocative romantic-infused things. It's not clear if Todd were herself inspired by Fifty Shades of Grey, but the similarities between the two are apparent.

Josephine Langford (Wish Upon) stars as Tessa Young, a freshman at college. She has a single mother and a boyfriend who is a senior in high school. Her mom is worried about the young people in her dorm room. Tessa's mom is also worried about Tessa losing her focus on her work. Her boyfriend is her best friend and he seems to be less worried. Yet, they definitely feel the distance, as her college is quite far from her hometown where her boyfriend has to stay. Things start to change for her when she meets a friend of her roommate whom takes an interest in her.

Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) co-stars as Hardin Scott, the Harry Styles proxy in this story. He's not a pop star nor does he have any inclination toward music, but he is British.  Actually, he's half-British and half-American. His father lives in the United States and his mother lives in England. It seems as if Hardin's father has custody, but Hardin is college-age, so he can choose to go wherever he wants. For some reason, he chooses to stay in the US instead of go be with his mother. This makes no sense, given how much he hates or is upset at his father. Hardin is mad at his father but he chooses to live with his father or at least attend the same college where his father is chancellor.

Hardin appears to be an English major. Tessa isn't but she obviously has an interest in English literature. They have a disagreement in class, but they clearly have an attraction. After a Truth-or-Dare game has them almost kiss, he starts to pursue her. She's hesitant to do anything with him because she has a boyfriend, but it's no surprise that eventually they end up together.

Unfortunately, I was never convinced as to why they would end up together. Putting aside the third act twist that's supposed to derail things, I didn't see or feel an over-compelling reason why those two would choose to be together. If it's purely for superficial reasons, that would be one thing. However, the film would have us see this as something deeper, a true kind of love. From his perspective though, it's never quite convincing. Hardin could and probably has been with several girls. Why Tessa is so special in his eyes fails to translate. T­he movie would also have us believe that Tessa is some virgin who has never thought about sex before. That is until meeting Hardin. It begs the question of what her relationship was like with her high school boyfriend.

Did they never talk about nor consider having sex? We don't know and the film has no interest in telling us. This film is essentially about a young girl's sexual awakening, but, it would have us think that it came upon her suddenly. Despite having a boyfriend, a guy who has been in her life for years, we're supposed to accept that these thoughts and sexual desires never occurred to her until now, as a freshman in college. That's a bit of a leap that the film never justifies.

Supposedly, the one or two scenes she has with her mom, played by Selma Blair, are meant to indicate that perhaps her mother is repressing her or being overly protective. Her mom is possibly pushed to be the justification for Tessa's sexual immaturity or her virginal status. Yet, those one or two scenes aren't enough. I guess we just have to take that Tessa is this veritable bookworm or wallflower, and it took not even that much effort from Hardin to get her into bed.

Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!

There is a third act twist that provides an extra kick of drama into this narrative that was otherwise lacking or lame in the film for about two-thirds of it. That twist is the reveal that Hardin pursued Tessa because of a bet that he made with his friends that he could make her fall in love with him and then he could just dump her. If this premise sounds familiar, that's because it is. It was famously the plot of She's All That (1999).

Instead of using this twist to explore and further understand the characters, it's played merely as a reason to break the two of them up. It felt more like a plot device than something that organically revealed anything about the characters. The reason that Tessa finds out about this secret is because one of Hardin's friends tells her and even shows her video evidence. However, it's not clear as to why she tells Tessa. Why would she care? Is she jealous? Does she object to what he did? If so, why didn't she say something sooner?

It feels like director and co-writer Jenny Gage didn't care to answer those basic questions and therefore didn't care about the basics and fundamentals to telling this story.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some college partying.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 45 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD.