The Aftermath: Film Review

The Aftermath: Film Review

Cast: Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke, Alexander Skarsgard
Director:

"The butler did it. It's always the butler."

It's a line spoken to Keira Knightley's Rachel as her husband Lewis (Clarke) apologises for the destruction of the Agatha Christie novel she's been reading.

But, as this story of life in Hamburg after the end of World War II progresses, and the love affair between former houseowner and German Lubert (Skarsgard) and Knightley burns, it's an apt comparison.

The truth of The Aftermath, based on the book of the same name, is that it's a film that feels lacklustre in its execution, its passions muted when really they should burn fervently within. Which is a shame as this is a story so rarely told in its early act.

It's an intriguing tale - the aftermaths of the title refer to many things within the movie; the aftermath of the war, the aftermath of grief affecting Rachel and Lubert, the aftermath of growing up for Lubert's daughter, the aftermath of a regime fall - it's all potent stuff to be stirred up and to be used for dramatic effect.

But for all of Knightley's intentions, her Rachel is petulant, icy, angry and unlikeable, her situation not intolerable, but her attitude just quite repugnant. Knightley does shine in moments, but given the script services her with moments that are simply meant to happen rather than organically evolve, the film's crippled in many ways.

Most effective in all this is Clarke, whose restrained and gradually overwhelmed colonel trying to be a shining beacon of decency is a real highlight in the movie. Moments where his humanity rises to the top in the face of all they deal with in Hamburg are critical to the stark and stilted moments elsewhere.

Ultimately, The Aftermath may be a slickly delivered period piece, but it's one that falls into the bland category far too quickly, with plots feeling rote, underwritten and underdelivered.