Set in postwar Germany in 1946, Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter winter, to be reunited with her husband Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city. But as they set off for their new home, Rachael is stunned to discover that Lewis has made an unexpected decision: They will be sharing the grand house with its previous owners, a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) and his troubled daughter. ... (Full plot summary below)
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Set in postwar Germany in 1946, Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter winter, to be reunited with her husband Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city. But as they set off for their new home, Rachael is stunned to discover that Lewis has made an unexpected decision: They will be sharing the grand house with its previous owners, a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) and his troubled daughter. In this charged atmosphere, enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal.
Leave your thoughts about The Aftermath.
| Arizona RepublicMelissa YeagerThose who enjoy either World War II movies or period dramas likely will enjoy this movie, even if some of the plot twists are predictable. It's an enjoyable deviation from the typical war story, but if there were more layers of warmth and stronger emotional connections between the characters, it could have built to a more satisfying conclusion. |
| The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMuch of the book’s emotional context appears to have been lost in translation. |
| New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottBut even if moviegoers' eyes will roll from time to time, Aftermath is so nicely acted, and so handsomely shot, that those eyes won't likely look away. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAlthough it’s being marketed as a love story, The Aftermath is more about grief and recovery than romance. In fact, the film’s illicit relationship is a cold, passionless affair that generates as much heat as a dying ember in a snowstorm. |
| EmpireHelen O'HaraThe bones of the story have been played a million times, but a talented and committed cast make this swoonsome rather than samey. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeThe result is attractive and diverting, as any well-appointed film starring these actors in mouthwatering period finery could hardly fail to be — though for a story about people rebuilding their lives through grievous personal loss and moral torment, it’s hard not to wonder if its vast reserves of enviable knitwear are counting for more than they should. |
| Screen InternationalFionnuala HalliganThe Aftermath works best when looking at the bewildered people who have been left behind, literally, to pick up the pieces. The savage loss of family members still reverberates through empty rooms and ruined landscapes. |
| IndieWireEric KohnNone of the pretty imagery or impassioned lovemaking can break free of a mopey old formula that sits on every scene with the same schematic quality that makes its weary setting so familiar from the start. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrThroughout, Knightley gives this genteel silliness conviction, grace, heart, and nerve. Sarsgaard gives it smolder and sex appeal. And sometimes, dear reader, that’s all a movie needs. |
| Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySadly, director James Kent’s sappy and utterly unconvincing new film The Aftermath shows that even the most foolproof ideas wither in the face of turgid, overripe melodrama. |
