(2009)**
Elementary school teacher, Christina Ricci, is killed in a car accident following an argument with her boyfriend. While being prepared by the town’s creepy mortician, Liam Neeson, Ricci opens her eyes insisting that she is still alive. Liam explains, “That’s what they all say” and further notes that he has the unique ability to speak to the dead. When Liam is off doing other mortician things, Ricci wanders the halls (naked a great deal of the time) in a vein attempt to escape. At one point her boyfriend comes to view her one last time but Liam refuses, locking the boyfriend out. I’m not dead!” Ricci screams more than once. So is Ricci just a pain in the ass as she resists crossing over or is Liam a weird sadist who gets off on imprisoning pretty ladies. It turns out that you won’t care very much.
Perverts! If you want to see me naked than you have to watch my movie
What happened to Christina Ricci? I always thought that she was a cool actress, why is she slumming here? For someone with her resume it boggles my mind that she would take on a role where she is essentially naked throughout an entire film. The same might be said of Liam Neeson, why this picture? To be fair, After.Life starts off promisingly. The “is she or isn’t she?” really dead question will keep you guessing for a while but eventually you just won’t care. Ricci’s character was not an especially nice person in life so you won’t really find yourself rooting for her either way. The film plays a few too many “tricks” on the audience, which annoys more than intrigues. The vague conclusion will only add to your frustration with the entire affair.
Having said this After.Life does have its charms. If you have ever wondered what a mortician does behind the scenes look no further than this film, which treats us to extreme close-ups of mouths being sewed up, blood draining into buckets, and huge needles being jammed into corpse necks to give skin a more “natural” color. In conclusion, if you’re curious about morticians or if you just want to see Christina Ricci naked for long stretches of time, this film is for you. Otherwise After.Life offers little in the way of story or surprises. I was going to make a joke about wanting my “life” back after watching this film but it’s just too damn obvious.
