The After was the first film in this year’s package of Oscar-nominated short films in the live action category; it’s also the shortest.
Set in London, the film’s first scene depicts a man—evidently a successful, hot shot, white collar type—keeping on top of his work responsibilities by cell phone while primarily trying to devote his time and attention to an outing with his wife and little girl. Suddenly some madman with a knife bursts upon them, flailing away at whoever is in range, and before a crowd is able to subdue him, the wife and daughter are dead.
The “after” of the film’s title, then, refers to the aftermath of this event, the impact it has on the man and whether he will be able to go on and to rebuild his life.
From the little bit we see—most of the remainder of the film shows him working as a ride share driver—we infer that he has had to give up his job.
In the final scene, he is driving a couple and their young daughter—about the age that his own daughter was or slightly older, so maybe the age she would be now had she survived. The adults are bickering nonstop in the car, with the glum daughter sitting between them. When they reach their home, the adults get out with their packages and go to their door, but the daughter remains behind (it actually flashed through my mind that she was some sort of ghost of the driver’s daughter that only he could see; certainly the couple in the back gave no indication of being aware of her existence), finally getting out of the car when he comes around to the back and kindly urges her to do so.
After taking a few steps toward her parents, spontaneously she runs back to the driver and throws her arms around him from behind. He is understandably stunned at first, then collapses to the pavement weeping. The parents look at him like he’s nuts and potentially dangerous, and hustle their daughter away from him and into the house.
Certainly the topic of the film is very heavy, and it affected me emotionally for that reason. But I didn’t feel like the film did all that much with it.
I mean, I’m guessing the point of the ending is that he is finally letting go and allowing himself to manifest how hurt he is from what happened to his family, and that this is key to his being able to eventually heal. But I never read him as someone who was stoically trying to soldier on through life, without showing weakness, without showing pain. He has appeared distraught and damaged all along, ever since the incident. He has relinquished a job that would have required of him a greater degree of functionality. There is mention at one point that he has received counseling. He has always seemed like a damaged person who is not trying to deny or hide that damage.
Also, that final scene doesn’t flow all that logically. I guess the girl somehow intuits that he’s on her side, that he agrees that the unpleasant, arguing parents are neglecting her and don’t appreciate her the way they should. I think something like that probably is going through his mind, thinking about how if he still had his daughter he would cherish her in a way that contrasts with these folks’ behavior. But the thing is, he really doesn’t do or say anything to indicate that to her. We can infer it because we know his backstory; she doesn’t. There’s no particular reason for her to run to this total stranger for protection or understanding, and to hug him so emotionally.
All-in-all, I appreciate the effort to tackle a truly sad, important subject, but The After doesn’t strike me as having done so unusually well. It’s only 18 minutes long, and it feels light relative to its topic.
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