I have thoughts on remakes that I would like to share with the group. I am not a fan of someone taking something that was great and remaking it, as I see it there is no way to go but down when you are tackling something that was done so well. On the other end if you take a movie that say didn’t reach it potential, I am all behind that, because hey it can’t get much worse, right? The other remake I feel is the “good” kind, are the ones that are from a film no one saw, both foreign and domestic. When people don’t see something great, and you feel they should, I am all in when someone wants to share that with a broader audience, I just hope the remake doesn’t lose its way.
From a 2006 film with the same name by Susanne Bier, After the Wedding finds Isabel (Michelle Williams) running an orphanage in India where she gets an offer of a large sum of money to help but requires her to go to New York for it. Reluctantly she goes, where she meets her would be benefactor Theresa (Julianne Moore). Theresa who because of wanting to figure some more things out when it comes to the donation she invites Isabel to her daughter’s wedding. Once there she meets Theresa’s husband Oscar (Billy Crudup) and her daughter Grace (Abby Quinn), but that is when things really take a turn. Now Isabel has to figure out what path to take, as the past, present, and future collide together.
Whatever you want to say about this movie, going into it you know that the cast is stacked, so it already has that working for it. For their part Moore and Williams perform as expected s does both Quinn and Crudup , they are not the problem. That is laid at the feet of writer/director Bart Freundich, whose story based on Susanne Bier’s original screenplay doesn’t really pull the punches it needs to. The emotional hits that are expected lack the strength to really bring out any true emotion. When it wants to go for the old heart strings the effort gets lost in you trying to figure out what the movie wants to be. While the effort is not lost, as I think some people will feel, because of their own experiences, I think a film like this was aiming for something bigger than that.
Even though it doesn’t know what it wants, the acting does save the film for the most part, as seeing anyone at the top of their game can take average to a higher level. After the Wedding ends up in the moment being just fine, but for me this is one wedding I will not think of much after it’s done.
