AFTER THE WEDDING – Rated PG-13 – 1 hr. 51 mins.

This Review is brought to you by Kathy Kaiser

AFTER THE WEDDING – Rated PG-13 – 1 hr. 51 mins.

DIRECTED BY:  Bart Freundlich 

WRITTEN BY:  Susanne Bier, Bart Freundlich and Anders Thomas Jensen

STARRING:  Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, Abby Quinn, Will Chase and Azhy Robertson

Let’s venture across the world to an orphanage in India, where Isabel (Michelle Williams) lives out her days, bringing joy to all those around her.  As the orphanage struggles to stay afloat, it seems a certain benefactor has stepped forward to help keep them afloat.  But, this “anonymous source”, located in New York City, is adamite that Isabel venture back to the states to get everything in place, before she will relinquish any of the funds.  And as Isabel soon finds, nothing is ever quite as it seems, when she meets business mogul Theresa (Julianne Moore), who is wrapped up in her own life, to be totally engaged with Isabel once she arrives,  thus suggesting that everything they need to discuss wait until after her daughter Grace’s (Abby Quinn) wedding…

Anxious to return to India as fast as she can, as she longs for her life among the children that she can’t live without, Isabel soon finds that Theresa’s intensions, although not forthright in the beginning, are truly pure and above reproach in the end, thus bringing Isabel to rethink he own life’s journey along the way too…

I give AFTER THE WEDDING a rating of MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN:  Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams are both absolutely brilliant in this beautifully written, and even more beautifully portrayed film.  After the Wedding manages to poetically pay tribute to the passion of life, the passion of motherhood, and the sacrifices that every woman in this world will make for those they love.  After the Wedding is truly one of those rare films that draws you in more and more, with each passing frame, and doesn’t let go.  Maybe it’s the fact that many parts of my own life seemed to be flashing before my eyes on screen.  Maybe it’s because I feel that both Moore and Williams should be getting nods for their exceptional performances throughout every inch of this fabulous film.  Or maybe it’s just because there are few films made these days that truly touch on the essence of women, like this film does.  All I know is that when you combine the work of Moore and Williams, with the additional exceptional performances by Billy Cudrup, and Abby Quinn,  you end up with one incredibly moving  film.  And please make sure to bring along some tissues too when you head out to the theater, as if you are a mother, a wife, a lover or a friend, After the Wedding is going to touch you in a way, that few films have done before…