Expressive ‘After Love’ is emotionally brutal
“After Love” chronicles a couple drowning in a crumbling marriage, and director Joachim Lafosse traps us right along with them.
Set almost entirely in a couple of rooms of their apartment, the film relentlessly details their complaints, their put-downs, their rolled eyes and arguments — most of which take place in front of their young daughters. Fun stuff, huh? Not exactly. But Lafosse, along with actors Bérénice Bejo and Cédric Kahn, infuse the film with a brutal honesty that makes it, if not exactly enjoyable, certainly compelling.
Marie (Bejo) and Boris (Kahn) are separated, sort of, without living separately. They can’t afford to. Lafosse doesn’t reveal much in terms of backstory — too little, really, as the presence of a group of thugs Boris is in debt to is never explained — but over the course of the movie we learn that Marie’s family had money; Boris, a contractor always in need of cash, has made his own way. He won’t leave until he gets what he believes is his fair share of the apartment — half its value, because of renovations he’s made that he believes have increased its worth.
The way they fight about money, and more importantly the lack of it, rings true. Boris tells one of the girls he will get her a new pair of soccer cleats. He doesn’t, and Marie does instead. A simple act that in another context would be evidence of a partnership becomes practically an act of war, another small-buthumiliating reminder to Boris that he isn’t providing — exactly the effect Marie wanted. Their lives are full of such head games. Marie acknowledges that she can no longer stand the sight of him.
While we don’t know much about their relationship, we pick up hints that at one time they loved each other. But now they are toxic, and they don’t keep their poisonous blow-ups to themselves. They often argue in front of the girls. One evening while Boris is out — he’s supposed to stay gone till 8 p.m. on certain nights — Marie has a dinner party with friends. Boris returns, and despite Marie telling him he’s not welcome at the table, a friend asks him to join the group for a drink. An awkward scene follows.
Marie doesn’t smile until about an hour into the movie. Boris is goofy with the girls and seems more agreeable toward Marie than she does to him. But it becomes clear that his feelings are more complicated.