Director: Roger Kumble
Distributor: Belga Home Video
Duration: 107 minutes
After We Collided (DVD) – Movie Review
After We Collided is the sequel to teen romance drama After, released back in 2019. These movies have a bit of a curious history, starting out as a series of online novels based on the popular band One Direction, which were then lifted to become a set of real publications by changing the names of the characters. Offspring Entertainment picked the franchise up for its silver screen adaptation, giving us what is essentially a movie where the origin of the source material is way more interesting than anything that is actually contained within.
Picking up directly where the previous movie left off, After We Collided continues telling the story of dramatic lovers Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) and Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin). After their rather shaky relationship in the first movie, the two are broken up and trying to move on, with Tessa starting an internship at a publishing company and even meeting a new hunk in the form of her coworker Trevor Matthews (Dylan Sprouse). Things get complicated fast – as is the staple of this genre – when Hardin’s mother (Louise Lombard) comes around and due to a set of circumstances, Tessa ends up agreeing to pretend her relationship with Hardin is still ongoing. Both are haunted by their past and their failed relationship, trying to see once and for all if they can still work together.
As this summary might have made you guess, the story is held together by paper clips and cliches. Conflict arises from miscommunications and every single trick in the book is used to somehow get the audience to feel compassion for its characters – including a car crash that has little to no influence on the greater plot. This greatly messes with the flow too, making us sit through horribly long scenes of the character talking that are sure to bore us, with melodramatic action thrown in-between to at least somewhat excite us. Where the first movie of this series had a PG13 rating, meaning a lot of the raunchy stuff was left out or only implied, After We Collided managed to snag the more adult R rating. This means they can get away with a little more, something the writers immediately used to drop f-bombs and other foul language into their stilted dialogue that sounds like things nobody would say ever. There are plenty of sex scenes that feel more like underwear commercials too.
But the flow really is only the start of the issues we can find in After We Collided. The acting is not atrocious, since that would imply it manages to elicit any emotion at all. Most of it just feels bland, with very little chemistry, especially between the main couple. Ironically enough it is only Dylan Sprouse as Trevor who manages to somewhat avert this (probably thanks to having more experience) and ends up being a fun addition to the movie. The other more experienced actors are delegated to less important roles as nagging parents or side characters.
Originally the movie was released on VOD alongside theatres to compensate for the worldwide pandemic. By now we have a DVD release that comes without any extras aside from the original trailer for the movie. This might not be the worst thing in the world, since watching a ‘making of’ for this wreck doesn’t sound too entertaining. Some bloopers would have been nice though, to cheer us up after viewing.
Conclusion
Unless you felt real strongly about After and have a desperate need to see how the plot continues (or you just enjoy masochism), After We Collided can be safely skipped. The boring performances, unrealistic story, and overall bland experience probably wouldn’t entertain the regular viewer, even during the lockdown that is seemingly never coming to an end.
After We Collided (DVD) - Movie Review,
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