After the Wedding
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 9, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 29, 2019
Granted, Freundlich has the benefit of Bier’s screenplay contributions to guide him, but in his particular execution, the story feels grounded for a very different strategy from Bier’s: Rather than going out of his way to include recognizable human moments, he strips away anything excessive, allowing subtext to surface in the quiet spaces between dialogue. Read full review
79
TheWrapSteve PondJan 31, 2019
On the whole After the Wedding is a touching journey through a world where even those with the best intentions leave some wreckage behind, and where forward motion only comes with hard looks into the past. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 21, 2019
Is After the Wedding a great movie? No, not especially. Are these two women treasures of cinema? Absolutely. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 12, 2019
This sets up a mesmerizing double master class in acting — by Moore, to be sure, but also by Williams. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 8, 2019
If the script’s epiphanies don’t feel quite as shocking or profound the second time around, it’s still pleasing to watch these beautiful, troubled people move through their equally beautiful spaces: something borrowed, something blue — and with Freundlich’s careful alterations, something new. Read full review
70
UproxxMike RyanJan 29, 2019
It’s a movie about hidden family secrets, with a comical amount of twists, and it plays more as melodramatic schlock. And I just happened to really be in the mood for melodramatic schlock. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMatthew PassantinoJan 29, 2019
Freundlich’s approach to the film is respectful to the original but begs the question of why translate this particular film for a more mainstream audience. He does so deftly but After the Wedding trods in some familiar melodramatic territories, which may not have the same impact as the original. Read full review
67
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 29, 2019
Somewhere in the middle of After The Wedding it becomes clear as day: Michelle Williams is one of a kind. Not that we didn’t know this already. Still, it’s nice to be reminded. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 21, 2019
Or, well, melodrama. Because the further this picture plows along, the more “Isn’t that convenient,” in terms of plot twists, comes into play. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 19, 2019
Certain plot elements that made sense in the original are less logical in this one, especially when one considers the differences in bonds between mothers and children and fathers and children. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 14, 2019
What we’re instead left with are two diametrically opposed performances: Williams goes small and intimate as the distressed Isabel, while Moore opts for a more operatic, less successful tenor that results in what might be the actress’s most unhinged moment ever (and not in a good way). Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansNov 4, 2019
This story of motherhood and moral conundrums, of privilege and philanthropy and “worthy causes” is one whose dramatic twists and soapy reveals feel at odds with the cultivated tone of serious, muted elegance. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 16, 2019
There’s a lot to be admired here, and After the Wedding certainly gives you a lot to think about. It just doesn’t quite make you feel all the feels. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 19, 2019
After the Wedding contains enough domestic revelations for several seasons of something delicious, but Freundlish’s showdowns all seem to dissipate or get curtailed abruptly. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 29, 2019
It would be difficult to invest in if not for its two main stars who work hard to elevate the overly engineered plot, filling in the emotional gaps left by the haphazard script. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 25, 2019
It’s a morose and slow-paced and off-putting drama, in which even the joyous moments seem brittle and draped in melancholy. Read full review
50
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 15, 2019
The cast is made up of some of the finest and most interesting actors working in film today. And for the most part they’re doing thoughtful work. Unfortunately, there’s only so much they can do. The film doesn’t go emotionally deep enough to pay off. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 13, 2019
There’s a Danish film called “After the Wedding” which was released here in 2007 and nominated for the foreign film Oscar. It didn’t win — it had the bad luck to be nominated against “The Lives of Others,” which was even better. But it’s a great film. The new After the Wedding is the American remake, and it’s fascinating. That is, it’s fascinating in that it’s not even close to great, despite using the same scenario. Indeed, it would be a real lesson in filmmaking to watch both movies back to back, just to see how to do things and how not to do things. And, just to clarify, the new After the Wedding would be in the “how not to do things” category. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedAug 9, 2019
The value of sensitive, balanced acting to enhance a mediocre movie has never been more evident than in After the Wedding, a ruminative though pointless remake of Susanne Bier’s 2006 Danish melodrama of the same name. Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams are splendid bookends in a well directed yet clumsily written sudser by Moore’s husband, Bart Freundlich. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 9, 2019
This is a Sad Rich People movie, no more so than a lot of American films dating back to the dawn of cinema, but it's no "The Leopard" or "The Royal Tenenbaums" or "The Great Gatsby" or you-name-it. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 8, 2019
In too many scenes Freundlich prefers the arch heaviness of pained expressions in posh surroundings when what you’re waiting for is the messiness of humans letting fly after their careful worlds have been upended. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 7, 2019
This is Williams’ spotlight, and it’s worth slogging through some of the soapier-to-sludgier aspects to watch her ply her craft Read full review
50
The PlaylistAndrew BundyAug 7, 2019
Overall, despite a few profound explosions of emotion, the remake is more tonally overbearing than it is dramatically rewarding. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiAug 7, 2019
Though technically a film, with all of its corresponding qualities, After The Wedding primarily exists as an actor’s showcase for its main quartet. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 29, 2019
Despite a stellar cast led by Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, After The Wedding never cuts very deeply, staying on the surface of a tale that ought to tear into the viewer’s soul the way it does these tormented characters. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 29, 2019
Bart Freundlich's American remake of the Bier film flips the gender of the main characters, yielding predictably strong performances from Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams but otherwise removing the teeth from a melodrama that grows increasingly preposterous as it crawls toward its weepy conclusion. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnJan 29, 2019
There are flashes of subtle resentment to Williams’ performance that register as some of her best work in ages, so it’s unfortunate that the movie’s calculated assemblage of sentimental beats dominate the show. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 16, 2019
None of the characters has a true home. Comedies end with weddings, with order replacing chaos, but After the Wedding is not a comedy and weddings don’t fool anyone. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 12, 2019
The longer that After the Wedding goes on, the more it concentrates on the woes of white folk, to the exclusion of all else, and you gradually realize that the Third World, far from being a source of cultural tension, isn’t even a backdrop to minor domestic events on the East Coast. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 8, 2019
What should be a volcano of betrayal and acrimony never fully erupts; even Moore’s brief meltdown feels staged, and Isabel is so irritatingly tranquil that Williams has no room to breathe in the role. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 28, 2019
There's a clumsiness here, a succession of setups and awkward payoffs that are so on-the-nose, so cringe-inducingly earnest, that it's hard not to laugh. Even the story behind Grace's name is more likely to trigger guffaws than the kind of sentimental welling-up intended. Read full review
25
Slant MagazinePat BrownAug 6, 2019
The film diverts us away from its hint of a social message using a series of tired twists and turns that don’t signify much of anything. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 31, 2019
The mystery has been dialled down, the treacle dialled up, and what we are left with is basically Eat Pray Love 2. Read full review
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