After Ever Happy
Part four of the After saga continues its prolonged journey.
This is the ongoing story of Tessa and Hardin, on-off lovers who have their own relationship and family problems. The first film was simply called After (2019), followed by After We Collided (2020), then After We Fell (2021) and now After Ever Happy (2022). Based on the books by Anna Todd, they had me thinking back to Hollywood in the 1940s when the same characters reappeared in popular series such as the MGM Andy Hardy films with a cute Mickey Rooney and a pretty Judy Garland. However, in those bygone days they were usually romantic comedy-dramas touched with an innocence quite unlike today’s love stories with their gymnastic couplings and incessant four-letter words. Yes, the language back then was quite restrained, too, whereas After Ever Happy has a limited vocabulary that stretches to some 48 F-words and 18 S-words.
Well, the After series is nothing like the Hardy family films, for here we have the rather twisted, messed-up Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin, nephew of Ralph Fiennes) and, having found out about his true parentage, he hits the whisky bottle with a passion as he takes his anger out on partner Tessa (Josephine Langford). She doesn't really know how to placate Hardin and questions whether he is truly the man for her. She leaves to stay with Hardin’s stepbrother Landon (Chance Perdomo) but then discovers her father has died. Hardin arranges the funeral, thinking he will get Tessa back, but she is convinced she needs a real break and so heads back to New York to stay with Landon. The story doesn’t end there as there are more dramas and some softish sex scenes punctuated by maudlin love songs that kill the mood completely.
Family sagas are the stuff of the movies and television, but here it would help if we cared for any of the main characters. Hardin is just impossibly petulant to gain any of our sympathy. Tessa seems to be a weak person not knowing which way to go until she makes a break for it and begins to lead her own life without Hardin. However, there are a couple of turning points in an unexpected change of direction for both Tessa and Hardin that might or might not see them getting back together. That, dear readers, will have to wait for the next episode, After Everything... I for one will not be holding my breath.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Cast: Josephine Langford, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Louise Lombard, Chance Perdomo, Stephen Moyer, Mira Sorvino, Carter Jenkins, Atanas Srebrev, Kiana Madeira, Arielle Kebbel.
Dir Castille Landon, Pro Mark Canton, Nicolas Chartier, Jonathan Deckter, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jennifer Gibgot, Aron Levitz and Brian Pitt, Screenplay Sharon Soboil, based on the novel by Anna Todd, Ph Rob Givens and Joshua Reis, Pro Des Inigo Navarro, Ed Morgan Halsey, Music George Kallis, Costumes Anna Bingemann.
CalMaple/Wattpad-Amazon Prime Video.
119 mins. USA. 2022. UK Rel: 1 September 2022. US Rel: 7 September 2022. Cert 15.
