El pasado que nos une

After the Wedding (2019) is a U.S. film written and directed by Bart Freundlich. This movie is a remake of a Danish movie that I reviewed in 2007. The Danish movie is better.

What surprised me about this film is that the protagonist is a woman, Isabel, portrayed by Michelle Williams. In the Danish film the protagonist was a man. The rich donor in the Danish film was a man, while in the U.S. film it was a woman, Theresa, played by Julianne Moore. Billy Crudup rounded out the cast as Oscar, Theresa's husband.

Abby Quinn plays Grace, the young daughter who is getting married. Yes--the main action does take place after the wedding.

Many reviewers--in publications and for IMDb--have found the movie inferior to the Danish film. I agree. The idea of having the main protagonist as a woman is interesting, but makes the plot more melodramatic than the original. On the other hand, the switch gives us a chance to see Michelle Williams at work, and I think she's wonderful.

Apparently, most people didn't accept the plot, because the IMDb rating for the film is a horrible 5.8. (The Danish version received a 7.9!) I think that this movie isn't as good as the Danish movie, but I think 5.8 is too low.

We saw After the Wedding at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It will work well enough on the small screen. If you think as highly as I do about Michelle Williams, find and see this film. If you're not a fan of hers, I still think the movie is worth seeing. Minority opinion.

It's ok, but the Danish movie is just SO good. Same screenwriter but it's missing the beautiful subtlety of the close ups at hands and eyes that made the acting so special in the Danish one. It's missing Sigur Rós. Not everything should have a remake.

There are the exact the same words but the meaning is different. There are not close ups from eyes or hands. There is no emotion there are just words. So powerful was the original, so shallow is the remake. Even the little joke in the beginning, when Julianne Moore shows the view to Isabel. "At a clear day you can see New Jersey but who wants to see that" doesn't make sense here! There is no undercurrent in this movie, no subtleties that makes the original so emotional! Don't make a remake of everything. Americans can't make remakes of European movies because they miss the same background in everything

I gave "Efter brylluppet (2006)", the original film an 8 star rating, while gave just 1 star to the adapted "After The Wedding (2019) ", and seriously considered the 2019 film a totally unnecessary remake. There were too many unnecessary filler scene after scene in this lousy remake, and also considered the casting job so unfit and inappropriate. None of the four leading characters were good enough, even the future-son-in-law was a bad cast; the father figure didn't feel like a guy in the art business; his wife (reversed by the script to avoid the original), the successful business woman just played the part by talking over the phone non-stop or in her office to give instructions or orders to her assistant to give a false impression of how she was so busily successful; their daughter, gee, what an unlikable and bad actor; then, the charity organization woman, played by Michelle Williams, Jesus, the character was absolutely ridiculed by the lousy script and poor directing:

You were begging money for donation from a business woman in New York to support your money-pit charity in India, you were not in the position to be arrogant, rude, impatient. She didn't owe you nothing, how could you show up in her office like she owed you a lot of money? Your attitude was so arrogant and condescending, and even a bit of angry and impatient, like she's at fault not transferred money in time to your Indian bank, it forced me wasting my time to come over from India.

I don't know whether Ms. Williams had pointed out to the director that this unreasonable and inappropriate manners should not to be her attitude to play, or she didn't care, she just followed the stupid directing and script , and acted like money collector from India, demanding million dollars to be transferred ASAP. Nobody owed you anything, so where that bad attitude came from? You're asking charity donation from a business woman who used to wire money into your Indian bank account, but it didn't mean that she owed you. Your attitude should be very humble or somewhat humiliated, because you were forced to come afar begging people to help feeding the Indian kids.

Furthermore, the filler scene after scene, those totally unnecessary segments were forced into this stupid script like a stuffed turkey on a Thanksgiving dinner table inevitably exposed it to be a lousy film.

But the original "Efter brylluppet (2006)" was such a powerful and emotionally depressing film that even after so many years, it's impressed us so strongly, we still vividly remembered when it ended, we were deeply moved and disturbed. But not the 2019 bomber! It's an absolutely unnecessary appendix.

However, some of the Hollywood remakes adapted from several great European movies turned out to be great, either on par with their originals or, even better:

The Next Three Days (2010) vs. Pour elle/Everything for Her (2008) Sorcerer (1977) vs. Le salaire de la peur/The salary of fear (1953) The Upside (2017) vs. Intouchables/Untouchables (2011)

3 ingredients made these American remakes taste so good:

• Hired talented American screenplay writers who knew how to adapt an European flavor into American continental flavor that would certainly stimulate the American movie goers' taste buds.
• Acquired talented American directors to fully understand the adaptations.
• Great casting agencies, seeking out the most appropriate actors to replay and transform the original European roles into pure Americans.

Another Hollywood Remake No one Asked for, God help us.