After Love

What would you do if you're left all alone, found the partner you lived for was only half known, spent his days spanning channels, sailing parallel canals, his investment a fraction of the effort that you'd sown.

An engaging story with a standout performance at its core although it might leave you thinking that in their position you might behave ever so slightly differently, but who really knows how they would react under circumstances like these.

Greetings again from the darkness. There are multiple ways one can interpret the first feature film from writer-director Aleem Khan; however for me, this worked best as a study of identity - how we define ourselves and our life. It's an unusual start to a story. A woman is going about her normal kitchen duties, preparing tea for her husband who is relaxing in the other room after an event. Before the opening credits roll, the man suddenly and unexpectedly passes away. This sends the wife into grief and shock ... although an even bigger shock awaits her.

Joanna Scanlan plays Mary, the wife. She's an Englishwoman and converted Muslim. While organizing her late husband's wallet, phone, and texts, she comes across information that spurs her curiosity and sends her on a journey via train, ferry, and taxi, 21 miles across the English Channel to Calais. There are three 'natural' reactions to finding out your spouse has a secret family. First, confront them about it ... not possible in this case. Second, shrug it off and move on with your life. Third, confront the 'other' family. Somehow, Mary finds a way to botch her confrontation. She ends up being mistaken for the cleaning woman by Genevieve (Nathalie Richard), and Mary finds herself inside the home where a family picture - quite similar to the one Mary carries - sits on display. Also surprising is the presence of a teenage boy named Solomon (Talid Ariss).

The next few days are quite awkward for Mary and us viewers. She's helping pack up Genevieve's belongings for an upcoming move, and Mary's husband's shirts are included in these items. A striking contrast of physicality exists between the two women, and Mary quietly entrenches herself into the lives of Genevieve and Solomon, who struggle with a strained mother-son relationship. We can't help but wonder how this quandary will resolve, and the longer it goes on, the more challenging it becomes for Mary to come clean.

Director Khan includes numerous variations on cracks, splits, fissures, and breaks ... some more subtle than others. Each represents the collapse of the façade Mary previously understood as her life. She even catches herself making two cups of tea out of habit, and repeatedly listening to the final saved voicemail from her husband ... desperately searching for assurances of his love or clues that she might have missed. Frequent movie watchers will recognize the lead actors here, as Ms. Scanlan (NOTES ON A SCANDAL, 2004) and Ms. Richard (CACHE', 2005) work frequently. Composer Chris Roe's string score blends nicely with the on screen stress as the pulling back the curtain on one man's life exposes the fractured world of others. Love, grief, and identity, are all on trial here as we are reminded to find our own identity.

Opens in theaters on January 20, 2023.

After Love tackles bigamy. After the sudden death of her Pakistani husband Ahmed. His English wife Mary (Joanna Scanlan) who converted Islam and took the Muslim name Fahima learns that he had a long term relationship with a woman in France.

Ahmed worked on the ferries. He regularly travelled between Dover and Calais. To learn more about his double life, Mary sought out Genevieve (Nathalie Richard) who mistook Mary for a cleaner. She also learned that Genevieve had a son with Ahmed. A teenager called Solomon.

Instead of confronting Genevieve, Mary learns more about her late husband's second family.

The directorial debut of Aleem Khan. After Love is a slow burn film, a character study of Mary who is angry at her husband's deception as well as sadness over his death. There are symbolic visions of the cracks in her life. She examines her rotund body after she has met the slimmer Genevieve as her husband's betrayal lingers in her mind.

The film also contrasts the two characters. Mary became a devout Muslim, who learned some Urdu and was able to cook Pakistani food. Genevieve did neither of these things. At one point Mary retorts, 'I did something for my husband that no one else could.' Hence why Ahmed stayed married to her.

In the end After Love is about reconciliation and understanding rather than bitterness. A thoughtful film.

The movie "After Love" is an adult film that discusses the strength of a relationship of a couple after one departs. The realization that we haven't known the person we've been in living together for many years. The painful discovery of a parallel life that is not part of yours. Joanna Scanlan's performance as Mary is breathtaking, she carries the entire film, and she manages to convince us of the pain of loss, the discovery of betrayal, the fear of entering this parallel life, and the acceptance of reality. It's an enchanting and powerful performance. Director Aleem Khan also brings a mix of cultures (Pakistani, English, and French) which enhances the plot even more.

A revelation from the start. Great performances, carefully nuanced but never boring and serves it out. Also beautifully filmed and scored. Scanlon is a mixture of funny, broken and pained -- but all totally believable. See this strange little movie. It will not disappoint.

Should also note that there is no wasted character or portrayal. It is a tight ninety minutes showing how the main character's entire belief system -- in her husband, her faith, her very reality -- is suddenly in doubt. Best yet, her investigation pressing into these issues is totally believable as it occurs. This is rare. See it.