Aftersun

Grade: C+

Aftersun is a gloriously marvelous, touching, beautiful movie – buried deep within a plodding, meandering, misguided, confusingly executed one. I could often see traces of the film that was trying to break free, but in the end it just left me feeling cheated, hoodwinked, and frustrated.

Whatever “chemistry” is, and how to achieve it in the movies, we get a master class on it from our two leads, Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. They work wonderfully together as Calum and his daughter Sophie, age 11. They have beautiful Scottish accents. He is a 30-something single dad who has Sophie for a handful of days, so they go on holiday at a resort. Several plot summaries and reviews online make mention of the vacation place as “cheap” and “fading,” but I thought it looked pretty nice. Go figure.

Aftersun is light on plot. Its minimalistic narrative approach, and evocative locations made me think of The Florida Project. When the premise was established, I waited patiently for the other shoe to drop. For the conflict to move the plot forward. Not much happens, but I enjoyed the interplay between Mescal and Corio. I didn’t read up about the movie until after I saw it, where I finally found out what it’s really about. I’ll let you research that if you want to, but I’ll say I didn’t pick up on that at all.

The movie brought up questions for me. What is the father’s deal? Is he terminally ill, and this is their last vacation together? I considered this at some points. Is he suicidal? Is he gay? We get hints of those possibilities. Aftersun keeps almost pulling us in the direction of exploring these questions, but then does nothing. There’s a recurring sequence throughout the movie that involves quick strobe-like lighting, and is absolutely maddening because it’s difficult to see and understand what’s happening. Ask yourself this: would anything have been weakened or lessened if we’d have been allowed to see this sequence without any strobe effects? Seems to me like it would have been more productive and satisfying.

Charlotte Wells, making her feature film directorial debut, has shown that she can make a great movie, even though she hasn’t here. Metaphorville and Symbolismland are neat places to visit, but eventually the wizard needs to come out from behind the curtain and play straight with us. Online forums like Reddit are fun to read for theories and explanations, but you shouldn’t have to depend on them for information on what the movie you just saw was about.

Grade: C+