Review: Aftersun

**** SPOILERS AHEAD, SAVE THE REVIEW FOR LATER. **** My take on this 2022 drama from Charlotte Wells is so greatly antithetical from 99.5% of the viewership of this film that, when combined with the seriousness of the subject matter, made me contemplate not even writing this review let alone publishing it. It just seemed to be asking for trouble that I genuinely don’t want. I certainly wouldn’t want to seem like I was trampling on or invalidating the greatly emotional response many had to the film. Your take on the film is no doubt absolutely valid and widely held. Y’know what, though? I think I owe it to the 0.5% to post this one and hope that maybe my view’s as valid as the majority view because I really do have a firm view on this one. It seems like cowardice to refrain from posting. Perhaps it’s a view a few of you will share, or at least one that you’ll understand.

 

This will be an entirely spoiler-filled review, because it’s impossible for me to talk about this particular film without spoiling basically everything, especially the ending. It’s pretty much my entire thesis. So tread ye carefully henceforth. I’m probably going to piss everyone off here so let me preface things by saying this: I suffered a similar loss in my life to what this film deals with. I lost a family member when I was quite young to a terminal illness. We also went on many a summer holiday during my childhood (as most of us did and have I’m sure), and some of those were during the period of illness. So with those things combined, this absolutely should’ve been a film that emotionally wrecked me. I was entirely unmoved except for a great deal of impatience. I spent the entirety of the film waiting for the plot to kick in. You will note that I didn’t start this review with my usual plot synopsis. There is no plot. A fly-on-the-wall experience, this is just some kid’s boring vacation with her dad, which just happens to end on a tragic note. Why would I want to endure someone else’s boring vacation where nothing happens? I’ve been on boring vacations with my dad when I was a kid, and it’s not the same when it’s not a first-hand experience. Watching someone else’s dud vacation is about as interesting as watching someone else play a video game.

 

This movie has 96% and 82% critics and audience scores on RottenTomatoes and for the life of me I don’t know why (admittedly the critic percentage just means 82% were positive to some extent on the film). Is the issue of male mental health important? Absolutely, and I’ve had my own struggles in this realm over the years too. Is the issue of male mental health in and of itself worth those percentages for a film? No. The film needs to be good. Instead we’re kept mind-bogglingly at arm’s length as Paul Mescal and his daughter wander around the resort, go for a swim, eat food, etc. while he’s apparently mentally struggling. Movies and real life are not the same, and this isn’t a documentary either. So I need plot, character development, conflict, literally any bloody thing at all. You can have a film with a genuine plot that also involves mental health issues. Instead we get countless mumbly conversations with people in the bathroom, a lot of wandering around, scenes of people sleeping, one scene of crying, and then the tragic ending. I guess it’s trying to give you the experience rather than a plot, but again, I was at arm’s length so it doesn’t work, largely thanks to Paul Mescal’s mumbly, rather reticent performance. Honestly, that one crying scene and a brief shot of some self-help/meditation books are all the evidence we get that this guy is not doing well. At least that I saw, perhaps you picked up some other details that I missed while I tried to stay awake. There’s nothing in Mescal’s blank, boring performance that even suggested an internal struggle to me before that crying scene, and there’s nothing else to the film at all. I know you wouldn’t want an over-the-top, overly mannered performance with a big neon sign pointing to depression. That’d be terrible. I also understand that this is from the kid’s POV (at times from the POV of her adult self looking back), and speaking from first-hand experience there was very little I understood when I was young and going through my own version of this type of thing (again, not a mental illness in my situation but certainly a death). It’s also true that people can hide their mental health struggles very well even from those closest. However, that level of obscurity and distance simply doesn’t work in a film. I don’t need to be spoon-fed everything or hit over the head, but I do need at the very least the smallest bit of…something either from the actors or the script. I got nothing here. I’m glad a lot of you found something here, but it didn’t do anything for me.

 

A non-entity of a film about a worthy subject. You keep waiting for it to go somewhere, for something to happen, to do something, only to be non-plussed when nothiing ever eventuates. Sorry, but an important social issue on its own does not a worthwhile film experience make. Believe me, the subject matter and even the main social issue involved is something I’m on board with totally, yet I hated this as a film. And that makes me sad because this could’ve and should’ve been a truly moving, worthwhile experience. It’s many people’s favourite film of the year, or certainly one of them. If you’re into arthouse or indie films more than I am, I imagine this might appeal more to you. Not for me. Instead it’s merely lucky that “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and “The Munsters” are even worse films from the same year. The hype with this one, I do not remotely understand. I’d say maybe with a rewatch it might work its magic on me, but it’s not really the kind of experience I’m likely to want to put myself through again.

 

Rating: D