Review: Life After Beth

Dane DeHaan plays a mopey young man who hasn’t recovered from the snake bite death of his girlfriend Beth, even though she had just broken up with him prior to her death. He finds himself hanging out with the dead girl’s parents (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon), and they seem to appreciate him far more than his own parents (Paul Reiser and Cheryl Hines). However, after a while, they stop answering the door, and cease all contact with DeHaan. Wanting to know what the hell is going on, he forces his way inside their house to find Beth (Aubrey Plaza), seemingly not dead, and also acting rather surprised that anyone would think she was dead in the first place. Has this just been a hoax? Beth’s parents try to act like it’s no big deal (Shannon declares it a ‘resurrection’, though), and encourage DeHaan to act like nothing has happened, and they hadn’t just broken up. Hey, at least he’s getting a second chance with her, he figures. However, it’s pretty apparent that not all is right with Beth. In fact, while she isn’t exactly dead, she is rather undead. Her memory sucks, she’s violent and erratic, sunburns extremely easily, and well, she’s getting a bit mouldy too. Before long, other dead people start to pop up seemingly undead and widespread panic ensues. Anna Kendrick turns up briefly as a family friend of DeHaan’s, in a cameo that kinda goes nowhere.

 

At first I didn’t see how it was going to be possible, but this 2014 zombie romcom from writer-director Jeff Baena (co-writer of “I Heart Huckabees”) takes its concept a bit further than I expected. I just didn’t see a feature-length film with this premise, but it’s better than it could’ve been (and much more consistently entertaining than “Shaun of the Dead”), and the leads are terrific. Hell, John C. Reilly is always good value, and Molly Shannon is well-cast, too in one of her better roles in recent years (I’m less enamoured with the bland Paul Reiser, and Cheryl Hines, who seemingly only has one act). Dane DeHaan is amusing as the guy who seems to be alone in thinking this is a FUBAR situation. He and the perfectly cast Aubrey Plaza are a great, quirky pair who give the film a little extra something, considering the laughs aren’t really gut-busters. The humour here is very, very droll and dry, for the most part. The funniest moments centre around Plaza herself, but also her character’s current state of being (her memory sucks and she gets sunburn incredibly easy). Plaza is unlike any other actress around, she’s got her own style and line delivery (comedic chops too), like a female Jeff Goldblum or Christopher Walken perhaps. She also makes for a convincing undead girl, for whatever that may mean, and she really, really goes for it, as a girl who has absolutely no idea what has happened to her. Things get seriously loopy when other dead people start re-emerging out of their graves, such as a ghoulish-looking and very random Garry Marshall, as DeHaan’s undead grandfather.

 

Obviously if you’re already beyond sick of this subgenre, you might not see much of interest here, as it’s a fairly mild piece of entertainment. I actually kinda liked it, even if it was a total waste of the adorkable Anna Kendrick (Seriously, don’t you just want to hug her? No I don’t have a restraining order against me. Why would you even suggest that?). DeHaan and Plaza are terrific. I wish it were a lot funnier, and I wish Anna Kendrick would marry me…er…I mean, I wish she had more than two scenes in the film. However, it’s still enjoyable, so long as you don’t expect a big laugh every minute. It’s not that kind of film.

 

Rating: B-