After We Fell

There’s a line in After We Fell that sums up the overall experience of watching it: in the middle of a heated argument between the two leads – Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) and Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin) – Tessa yells, “This is what you do – you sabotage every good moment that we have.” It’s very prophetic; everything starts and ends with the character of Hardin, from his toxic background to his bad behaviour. Tessa is just an accessory to tape together the very unsatisfying tale of the Scott family drama, despite the production pushing the narrative that she has agency of her own. Even when the film itself opens with a flashback to Tessa’s childhood, the subject never gets resolved. In general, a lot of the plot threads ventured into are left for the sequel to deal with, much like the prequel, After We Collide.

That’s one of the most frustrating things about the After movies – that the exposition, conflict and resolution all happen in the first act. The next hour then wanders aimlessly, until the last ten minutes rush an approach to the cliffhanger at the end. Nothing of note happens in the middle, which again can be attributed here to Hardin being the catalyst of everything – since he’s trying to reform, there’s nothing interesting to write about until more family troubles arise for him. The picture is all sex and no plot, making the 90-minute runtime feel a lot longer than it actually is. There is a nice little juxtaposition in Tessa’s dad and Hardin both trying to get better for her, but this collapses alongside the mess of the ending.

There’s a lot of symmetry with the previous films, including similar shots, reused tropes, and constant quote-dropping of classical literature. The soundtrack does liven things up, setting a very seductive tone for every intimate moment, but this is heavily undermined by badly executed sex scenes with shaky camera movements and misused effects. The cinematography is out of sync with the music, but fortunately their breathing coincides rhythmically with the beat.

All this said, the film’s worst offence is its inability to build anticipation. Every supposedly shocking or tense moment falls flat because of generic camerawork and score. Overall, this latest instalment to the series is directionless and lacks colour.

Mae Trumata

After We Fell is released digitally on demand on 22^nd October 2021.

Watch the trailer for After We Fell here: