AFTER THE WEDDING (12A)
LOVE and marriage go together like a startled horse and runaway carriage in writer-director Bart Freundlich’s English language remake of Danish director Susanne Bier’s Oscarnominated 2006 drama.
Transplanting the action from Copenhagen to New York, After The Wedding is enslaved to an emotionally manipulative plot, despite a neat gender swap of the central roles.
Freundlich chooses to glimpse heartache from the perspective of Julianne Moore’s corporate trailblazer and Michelle Williams’s do-gooder.
Isabel (Michelle Williams) lives in Kolkata in West Bengal, where she has cast aside the trappings of her formative years in America to co-found an orphanage. When a rich benefactor summons her to New York to agree a donation to shore up the orphanage’s finances, Isabel reluctantly agrees. The benefactor turns out to be powerful businesswoman Theresa Young (Moore), who is poised to sell her company so she can spend more time with her loved ones. Theresa cannot sign paperwork until after her daughter Grace’s marriage at the weekend. She extends an invitation to an irritated Isabel.
At the ceremony, Isabel is shocked to discover she recognises Theresa’s husband, gifted sculptor Oscar Carlson (Crudup) and their shared history threatens to derail Grace’s fairy tale nuptials.
Despite Williams and Moore being on their usual fine form, After The Wedding fails to land emotional body blows.