After the Wedding
IFC Films | Release Date: March 30, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Once again Bier demonstrates just how misleading appearances can be, as she artfully removes the veneers concealing the dark truths locked away by her intriguing characters. Read full review
80
VarietyGunnar Rehlin
Thanks to a tight script, sharp direction and excellent actors, new film by Danish helmer Susanne Bier manages to be both emotional and engaging. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob Nelson
What happens after the wedding comprises a full three-quarters of Bier's epic, whose near-Biblical twists and turns--I wouldn't think of giving them away--are enough to fill four weepies. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Talented filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers), armed with an outstanding compositional sense, keeps control over the storms of melodrama that swirl in this rich weepie. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Evidently, this bloated piece of Oscar-nominated nonsense was a big hit in Denmark, which makes me think there's a glittering future in that otherwise discriminating country for several seasons of "Days of Our Lives." Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
What feels at first like a quiet, straightforward picture builds into one of the richest and most satisfying of the year so far, in any genre or any language. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
After the Wedding would never pretend to have any answers, but in hands this skilled the act of exploration itself couldn't be more illuminating, or more dramatic. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A thrilling -- and harrowing, and beautiful -- celebration of the unpredictability of life.
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
With a third-act twist that outdoes that initial revelation, the film turns out to be a thoughtful exploration of paternity and responsibility. Much of the film's success lies in Bier's sensitive direction, but credit is also due to the fine cast, particularly Mikkelsen. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A fine and, on a scene-by-scene basis, often better than fine, if effectively unadventurous work. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
With its soapy earnestness and use of suffering souls as set dressing, After The Wedding could be the cinematic equivalent of a Coldplay song. And while that isn't necessarily a slam, it isn't a recommendation either. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
After the Wedding is full of enough plot twists to supply a whole season of "Desperate Housewives." Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The characters may suffer once the bride walks down the aisle, but Bier, Jensen and their first-rate cast work together like a match made in heaven. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
A rich, intricate and very gripping movie. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a fine tale of families and secrets, and its seemingly cold exterior gives way to something unexpectedly warm and soft inside. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Wedding has enough coincidences, screamfests, drunken rants and shock revelations to fill a season of "Desperate Housewives," but it comes across as finely textured drama, thanks to the performers, who make their characters so persuasive and three-dimensional, we're too mesmerized to care about the story's more overwrought or histrionic passages. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
At two hours, After the Wedding stretches out family flux too thinly and waits too long to reveal the final, devastating secret that we already know. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
It's a riveting character study/soap opera. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Bier primes us for a catfight, but she gives something tastier: a feast of reconciliation and love. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
After the Wedding defies the odds: For once, the bigger the emotion, the truer the moviegoing experience. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A highly original and unusually powerful drama that deserves comparison to the great Scandinavian films of the past. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Jensen's dramatic structure is so visible this sometimes seems like a late Rod Serling teleplay, but Bier has proved highly adept at merging conventional drama with the immediacy of the Dogma 95 movement. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
One of the best films to open in the Bay Area in 2007. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In After the Wedding Susanne Bier pushes the envelope further, toward operatic passion and the visual symbolism of Ingmar Bergman. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Bier directs with a sense of motion, pleasant without pushing. Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Jacob, is an actor who absolutely belongs on the screen, a gentler sort of Jack Palance. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Unfortunately, in Bier’s world, where even the most innocuous acts can result in emotional ruin, redemption is purgatorial in its own peculiar way. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Those willing to overlook its emotional grandstanding will find much to admire and even more to think about in this Oscar-nominated Danish drama. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Mikkelsen, like Jimmy Stewart, projects emotions with a slight twitch of a lip or narrowing of an eye. His long face - often handsome, sometimes plain, always cryptic - yields secrets slowly; you have to watch an entire film to know how his character feels and how you feel about him. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
After the Wedding ends up feeling far weightier than it first appears, with its plot contrivances and unlikely coincidences generating such a messy range of emotions, they end up feeling a lot like real life. Read full review
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