After: Chapitre 5

After Everything is the fifth and final part of the After film series. The film is again directed and written by Castille Landon, who also directed two previous films in the series.

After his relationship ends, Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) runs into writer's block. He is no longer able to write a second book. As a result, he ends up as a lost alcoholic.

To escape this life, he travels to Lisbon to visit his old lover Nathalie (Mimi Keene). In this way, he hopes to learn how to right his mistakes and have another chance with his lost love Tessa Young (Josephine Langfort).

This film is the first film in the film series that is not directly based on a real book from the After book series. Instead, they based this film more on unused storylines and Castille Landon himself was able to provide some inspiration for the story. The fact that this film is not really based on a book and comes more from pure inspiration is reflected in the messiness of the final film. This shows that they unnecessarily spread this book series over too many films, which was ultimately a bit unnecessary.

Hardin's character is also on more of a holiday in Lisbon for much of this film. It seems as if they have saved up the proceeds from the previous films in order to be able to go to Lisbon with the film cast and crew. Nothing special happens on Lisbon itself, except that Hardin tries to learn from the mistakes of his past. For this he picks up an old relationship with a new character who did not appear in the previous films or was not mentioned further. Josephine Langford, her character, hardly appears in this last film and is more visible in flashbacks of old scenes from the previous films. This makes it not very credible that the two separated lovers in this last film really tried to pick up or improve their relationship again.

After five films, the acting hasn't really improved either. Hopefully, after this film series, Hero Fiennes Tiffin will find better films and film series in which he can act in the future. Because Josephine Langford is hardly in this film, she didn't have to do much else. Hopefully she can also find better future films to act in. The rest of the returning and new cast members also get little special to do in this last film. Some seem a bit strange, because after four previous films they suddenly have to play important roles in this film out of nowhere. Most of these characters just have little to no background for the viewer to really care about them.

No pun intended - I actually thought the one before this was going to be the last one. But they had another one in them. Although technically speaking only one of the two main stars/characters is really present in this - physically that is. Of course the presence of the other main character is felt.

While there are still many things that are at least borderline cringe (and Mimi tries her best to fill in the role of female anchor point as good as she can, I reckon being cast because of the show she had done and became famous for) ... there are also moments where you think: oh they actually "act" like adults ... ok not too many of those moments, but still way more "level headed thinking" than in the previous entries.

Since I have not read any novels, I have no idea how this fairs with anything this is based on ... just saying. It is not as "sizzling" (I assume) as 50 shades of Grey ... but they do get it on - even if not ... "really" ... no pun intended.

I am torn between a lot of things - we have quite the despicable character who seems to be self destructive ... but also tries to do amends ... should we give him a break? Unforgivable? You decide that. The father has a few good scenes ... almost philosophical ... who'd have thought .. definitely a step up from the previous entries ... even without (or because?) one of the stars is seemingly absent ...

So, basically for 1h,25 min out of 1h30 min, they are showing only what Hardin is doing, the struggles of one narcissist when he can't get enough supply haha They were trying to make it seem like he is struggling cos he loves Tessa so much but it was no convincing to me. Tessa told him she moved on, but as soon as she saw him, she is head over heels obsessed with him on the same second. Tessa on the other hand shows only at the end of the film, literally the last few min, just so they can add some suggestive not even very good s*x scene in there. And guess what - they will get married, but they don't show any of it, they just skip through time and show them years later when they have kids? Makes no sense.. so the whole film was so slow paced (as in the whole 5 films) and suddenly they skip through the most important part of their life story - the marriage, the emotions, the pregnancies.. they show nothing. So if you want to watch Hardin being a drunkard and having s*x with other women for hour and a half, be my guest, but if you expect to see their development as a couple, this won't happen. Such a lame film, seriously. And I don't get how they include Tessa only at the end of this film, so the whole film was about literally nothing. I think this one must be the worst of them all and the ending is just so rushed and not satisfying. It's just really, really bad and I do no recommend. Not to mention it gives a bad example of toxic relationships and makes women believe that the bad guy will turn good all of a sudden, just cos she is the one, she is the chosen hahah no unrealistic. Everyone who has been in a relationship with a narcissist know they never change and marrying the guy or giving birth to his kids won't change him. I hate this film so much actually.

The first thing to remember is that Hollywood will change stories. It's an inevitable part of the process and is always a divisive move for fans of the original work. If you've read the stories, you may feel cheated - Tessa features so little in the story of what was her life. It's so unlike the works that came before it, as though the producers knew that Hero was the star to rely on for one more round. Their golden ticket. But, it's important to remember that it's deviated from the original plot since it's inception. It's all part of the transition from novel to screen and until this point, it's still managed to pull in our heart strings and give us enough of the characters to keep us on the edge of our seats.

I loved that 'After Everything' felt like an homage to 'Before', giving an insight into who Hardin was and how he became the villain we grew to love. It's his redemption story and Hero played the character he's worked hard to build, fantastically. But ultimately, the final part of the story was too rushed and I couldn't help but feel like the soundtrack overplayed it's hand throughout. It took away from what could have been an important and fitting ending to the story.

Whether you're a fan of the books or not, as a romantic movie, it failed to deliver that satisfying closer that we all hope for. It forgot what it was trying to achieve in the previous films, which is what took away from what could have been a real happy ever after.

I think that I saw the first two movies and they were depressing from what I remember. I remember them fighting and unhappy. I just remember them being dark. This actually made you feel good at times for the characters.

I love Mimi Keene too. She was really good as always. She is beautiful and funny. I love her in Sex Education. I liked that storyline and the scenery was beautiful. To me it didn't drag on either like some of these type of movies do.

It was good for the kind of movie it is intended to be. It set out what the intention was...for him to make his amends.

Once he did that it made for a happy ending.