Parent reviews for After Love

This reminds me of the kind of movies the English BFI used to make back in the 50s -60s - except then, they knew they had limited outlets, so made them short for the experimental market (the thoughtful ‘Together’ ’56 comes to mind). This British/French production might have been better as a 40min featurette or a 1 hr (max) TV show but here, has been stretched out to feature-length, and even at 90mins creaks and groans its way to its laborious end. British/Pakistani writer-director Aleem Khan has a reasonable grip on grief but pads out his stories transfer to the screen with ponderous, overly arty shots, often knitted together in a visually clumsy fashion --minimal dialogue and situations bordering on unbelievability-- with many scenes ending up as self-aware navel gazing. This is the stuff Film Festivals and fringe cinema thrive on, especially when it unnecessarily adds trendy homosexuality to its agenda-pushing themes. Chris Roe’s minimalist music score is well used and the cinematography is stylish, all performances are professional but its overall entertainment appeal will be certainly limited. Some might even sum this up as one of those movies that unfold in two speeds; slow and dead stop.