Love After Love

As many reviewers have noted , this movie jumps from one time sequence to another and leaves it up to the viewer to basically figure it out. I'm not a big fan of this style of first time director Russell Harbaugh, and with the film's many flawed and unlikable characters, I'm surprised I'm not giving this a 1 or a 2 rating as well.

However, I did find some strong acting here led by the seemingly ageless Andie MacDowell, and some dramatic tension among this dysfunctional family which I found interesting enough to stay with the movie, although part of me wanted to indeed bail.

Overall, a mixed bag for me here, but I can see how many will be turned off by some of the unlikable characters and their crappy actions.

The movie purports to be about grief. What we see is all the dysfunction expressed as projected rage, alcoholism, and all the function as "getting on with it." What we don't see is how the "grief" has transformed these people. We never get to see them transform. For all we know we may not be seeing just grief but personalities that have always been that way. It ain't pretty for the son's who dissolve into childishness, and it's hopeful for the widow who hews to maturity. It certainly does not paint a nice picture of liberal elitists.

This is not a bad movie. It is an atrocious movie! A complete and utter waste of time, celluloid and popcorn. If only there was a way to regain the time spent watching this worthless drivel. Any fool who believes there is any merit to this movie is severely deluded and quite possibly entirely demented.

Two minor quibbles: Why do people in these kinds of character study films always have glamorous jobs? And the sheer number of sex scenes detracts from the film. Most people Andie MacDowell's age don't look anything like Andie MacDowell. Otherwise, well done.

I have seen enough films at this point to know while watching it that this was one of the first films Russell Harbaugh directed. I knew this because first, there were several instances in which scenes interrupted other scenes without rhyme or reason. This implies that several scenes were, in my opinion, cut short. There were also times when the camera lingered too long on a subject, e.g., Andie McDowell. Related to this was the omission of what probably should have been included, specifically, the consequences of every time Chris O'Dowd's character, Nicholas, cheated on his then lover. In both cases, he just moved along, and whatever consequence there was, was minimal, and the film just progressed to his next involvement.

Then, there is the story line. I kept seeing an elephant in the room that no one was talking about and that was the Oedipal thing going on between Andie M. and Chris O'Dowd, as mother and son. Perhaps another film will grow out of this subject that was glaringly there and ignored. It almost felt as if the writer/director couldn't decide what should be the main story line, the emotional aftermath of the death of a family's husband/father, or the Oedipal relationship between the mother and son of that family which was highlighted once the father died.

Overall, as someone who can never watch too many "relationship movies", I am glad I saw Love After Love and look forward to Harbaugh's next.