‘After the Wedding’ and other films.
Handsome, earnest and reserved, despite a succession of soul-rattling character revelations, “After the Wedding” is the kind of wellappointed, morality-minded adult soap that once had pride of place throughout an earlier Hollywood era’s movie year. Now, it’s sneaking in amid the whizbang tentpoles with its measured tones and big-theme professionalism.
It may have trouble, though, since writer-director Bart Freundlich’s American remake of Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated 2006 family drama is curiously bloodless, despite the enticing tweak of gender-reversing the primary roles and giving two of those parts to Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore (who is also married to Freundlich). Their performances are rock-solid embodiments of the original story’s major concerns — parenthood, regret, emotional tradeoffs — but the movie is still a discordant mix of elegance and potboiler, miles from the type of vivid, stylish melodrama director Douglas Sirk and cinematographer Russell Metty accomplished in the ’50s.
With so many turns to process in “After the Wedding,” one should feel much more bruised and wiped out by the end, which Freundlich treats instead as a soft landing — the spills cleaned, leaving no visible scars. Consider it one kind of antidote to the summer movie season’s customary loud, gaudy chaos.
“After the Wedding.” Rated: PG-13, for thematic material and some strong language. Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Playing: Landmark and ArcLight Hollywood.