After.Life is one long, look at what is presumably a woman's last days of physical being on this earth. Anna (Christina Ricci) has a life that's in a bit of a rut, popping pills and wondering where her life is landing. Her relationship with her almost fiance Paul (Justin Long) has cooled significantly in her eyes and every little thing between them turns into some kind of fight to further tear them apart.
Then one night she dies.
It's the end of the line. It's all over, folks. The fat lady has sung fer last note and it's time to fade to black.
But it's not over yet.
The local undertaker Eliot (Liam Neeson, working on his overexposure of the year award) has brought Anna to his business for the final trip from the wreck, to the slab, to the hole in the ground. Eliot has a "gift" in which he can talk to the dead, helping them on their move to the other world, the big game of beach blanket bingo in the sky. Anna doesn't believe it. Eliot gets disgusted and complains about how these people are always expecting more from their lives and not believing it was their time to go. There is a conflict between Anna and Eliot in which he convinces her it's time while she fights it. Outside the cold room Paul can't accept it, creating what could be a delusion that she's a prisoner in Eliot's funeral home. This, essentially, is what the entire film hinges on- is she or isn't she.
In an earlier review of The Shining (1980) I suggested the idea that Kubrick's film isn't a ghost story, but more of a symptom of mental illness and the break down of members of a family locked up in a hotel together for a long period of time. Kubrick did a great job at leaving the film as ambiguous as possible and when you really think about it you have different roads to take when looking at The Shining. Was it full of ghosts? Was it simply a mental breakdown? Was it just bad karma? It's left up to you. After.Life takes the same sort of route in that the main question is whether Anna is actually dead or is this a sick game of Eliot's. Did he do a good job at bullshitting her or is she just bullshitting herself? As with everything else in life, it's all in your interpretation. You can be easily led both ways and it's not my job to tell you which path to follow. You must do that yourself grasshopper.
Overall the film isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are a lot of things that really drag it down, from assaulting junior high students to an ending that seems a little to easy if you ask me. I'm all for answering my questions as soon as possible, not leaving them to stew for and hour but that's just me. Basically it's a pot boiler film that is average. It's a nice change of pace with a great plot, but it just doesn't click creating a film that gets you excited to see it based on the story and then renders itself totally forgettable after viewing. There is no after life for this one. You'll see it, enjoy some of the psychological aspects of the film, then move on to other movies that have a great story and a soul to back them up.
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