Anna (Ricci), a nervous school teacher, has a fight with her boyfriend, gets behind the wheel in tears, and crashes into a pole. She wakes up in a morgue, where an affable mortician (Neeson) informs her that she has died and will soon be buried, and that he is only able to communicate with her due to his unique gift. The young woman, of course, doesn’t want to believe it.
A Chilling Standoff: Ricci and Neeson in “After.Life”
Ever since “The Addams Family,” it was clear that Christina Ricci was destined to play a corpse. Liam Neeson, in turn, is perfectly suited for the role of a cinematic maniac: quiet, polite, and seemingly ready to cut something off with an unctuous smile. In any other film, this could be called a “brilliant acting ensemble,” but not here. Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo pathologically prevents her stars from unfolding, and at the same time refuses to extract any drama from the material (the horrors of “life on the edge” seem to be there, but there’s no movement).
A Static Descent into the Afterlife
Even closer to the finale, when it seems that at least a melodrama, albeit a living one, is about to begin, the director boldly applies a “pattern break” and still keeps us on the edge. The result is a static picture for an hour and a half, where an unhappy naked young woman with bags under her eyes hangs over the abyss, and above her rises a sinister Charon. In principle, it’s dignified, but what does it have to do with cinema?