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I sought out The Aftermath primarily because of an interest in its setting, post war occupied Germany. What I found was a well made film, full of great performances. All of the characters in this film were emotionally wounded in some way and it was fascinating to watch them clash and interact.

A handsome and compelling production, I don't understand some of the poor reviews I've seen for this movie. Romantic films really aren't my thing but The Aftermath held my attention throughout its running time.

Great ending too.

There are many reasons a beautifully made film like The Aftermath (2019) ends up critically panned. Some describe it as slow, melodramatic, and predictable, but such labels often reflect unfulfilled viewer expectations rather than an ill-conceived or poorly executed film.

Set in 1946, the plotline is straightforward with few surprises other than its final moments. It opens with British Colonel Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke) and his wife Rachel (Keira Knightley) arriving in the devasted city of Hamburg to restore law and order, as well as to root out remaining Nazi sympathisers. The thoroughly middle-class Morgans have requisitioned a stately mansion owned by architect Stephan Lubert (Alexander Skarsgárd) and his rebellious daughter Freda (Flora Thiemann). Lewis is a compassionate man who cannot bear to send the Luberts to a squalid refugee camp and invites them to stay in the attic, setting the tension lines that drive the film. When someone remarks that more bombs were dropped on Hamburg in one week than were dropped on London in one year, we enter an inverted moral paradigm where the line between victory and vanquished turns grey.

The slow start has a purpose. Few films respectfully explore the humiliation of defeat and many viewers would ask 'why should they'? The Aftermath dwells on prolonged moments where the victor strolls in and takes over the home of the vanquished; where a population is deliberately starved to keep them compliant; where a once-proud culture must confront its inner demons. Deep unresolvable grief permeates the city as well as the lives of the Morgans and the Luberts. Both lost loved ones and the times are not sympathetic to healing. In the middle of this swirling emotional vortex, a classic 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' sub-plot becomes the narrative device for rebuilding lives.

This film stands out in the war-drama genre because of its nuanced portrait of the immediate aftermath of the Allied occupation of Germany. It reeks of period authenticity in ways that only British films can do. The stunning cinematography captures the horror of the immediate post-war period without the usual reliance on the tropes of military casuality and destruction. Knightley and Clarke's performances are outstanding, while Skarsgárd adequately fills the role of a grieving, if over-confident, romantic antagonist. As happens so often, Knightley's commanding presence and extraordinary range of emotional versatility stamps her ownership all over the film.

If history is only written by winners it will always only be half-true. The Aftermath is an essay about the other half, blending sufficient historical insight into a romantic drama to hold our interest without emotional sledgehammers. There are minor lapses of pace, maybe a narrative digression or two that dilutes momentum; but overall, this is a satisfying film that takes an uncommon view on unexplored cinematic territory.

Since the movie poster with the prominent appearance of my favorite actress Keira Knightley appears on the cover of the freshly re-released novel by the same name I consider it justified to compare the movie adaptation to the book and its notable deviations from the original plot. I read through a fair slice of the book and while I understand a movie adaptation must cut corners for the necessity of brevity it is quite remarkable to cut an entire character out of the plot. Since in the book there's an interesting dynamic developing between Freda (or Frieda), which is the German's daughter and the surviving son of the British couple and that whole plot has been cut from the movie because there's no remaining son! The parents are grieving for the loss of one of their children but would have all the more reason to persist in their faltering marriage if not for the bereft sibling. Another missing character is a woman that the British man hires for army work and with who he also was developing some sort of affair, even if that would not come to fruition it is an important part of understanding why the couple was growing apart: with the woman taking a liking to the German architect and her soldier husband to someone of is staff. Without these key ingredients what is left in the movie is only the one-sided affair of the woman with the German. It's quite incomprehensible that while the movie still has a duration of almost 2 hours there was no time to include these plot elements and it would have given the movie some more depth and have kept the story going on a heightened pace. What's left of the movie is not entirely bad and the main actors are making the most of what they are given to work with, but being familiar with the book left me with a feeling of disappointment.

Keira Knightley is simply outstanding in this drama about a woman torn between two men at the end of WW2. Very much in the vein of a Merchant Ivory production; might seem old-fashioned by modern standards, but there is definitely a place for this type of film, which is largely missing from current productions. An enjoyable, moving and beautiful film.

There are some good performances in this film. Unfortunately, it suffers from a very predictable script.. I knew what people would say before they opened their mouths. Mediocre at best.