After Ever Happy

After Ever Happy

As a shocking truth about a couple's families emerges, the two lovers discover they are not so different from each other. Tessa is no longer the sweet, simple, good girl she was when she met Hardin — any more than he is the cruel, moody boy she fell so hard for.

  • Released: 2022-08-25
  • Runtime: 119 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Romance
  • Stars: Josephine Langford, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Chance Perdomo, Carter Jenkins, Kiana Madeira, Stephen Moyer, Louise Lombard, Mira Sorvino, Arielle Kebbel, Frances Turner, Rob Estes, Atanas Srebrev, Anton Kottas, Ryan Ol, Tosin Thompson, Jack Bandeira, Emmenuel Todorov, Velizar Nikolaev Biney, Franklin Kendrick, Ana Ivanova, Jordan Peters
  • Director: Castille Landon
 Comments
  • fernandoschiavi - 25 January 2024
    Another empty and purposeless film of the saga "After", that is only justified, perhaps, for finally change the status quo of the main couple's dynamics
    Filmmaker Castille Landon does not delve deeper into the human dramas or even intensify the dilemmas of the erratic young man. In fact, she also does not show any kind of attention to the tension that surrounds the previous generation of penitent men and women for "loving too much". There is only one firm purpose on the horizon, that of creating successive obstacles so that the love apparently written in the stars does not find easy paths to happen. And the rest of the plot reinforces this silly obstacle course dynamic, in the midst of which the sentimental bond runs numerous risks. Deep down there is a very romantic idea that links difficulty to merit. Yes, as Hardin and Tessa face a true "triathlon of love" to prove that they are worthy of ensuring complete happiness for two. And in the meantime, the rest is treated as a mere frame.

    While the previous film, "After We Fell" focused on these family fights, this one focus almost exclusively on the lives of the two protagonists - even though it involves a tragic family event. It may seem like a positive point, given that the previous feature film is so interesting, but no. "After Ever Happy", with its focus on the couple, loses the most important thing: their story. There is no plot of any kind in this film scripted by Sharon Soboil, which is lost in the ups and downs of this couple's relationship. Well, that's not a story worthy of a movie. It's a narrative void so big, so uncomfortable that it becomes almost poetic because it's so null. In the end, it is difficult to understand what the plot of this film is. The feeling is that everything told here could fit into fifteen minutes of the previous film. One scene, then a passage of time and another scene would do the trick. But not. Just as the "Twilight" saga divided the last book into two films, with the first "Breaking Dawn" being literally a film about a honeymoon and childbirth, the studios prefer to capitalize on a franchise that already seems to be losing its edge. Adherence with its own audience, which was teenagers when the books were released and has now grown up.

    The "After" saga, by Anna Todd, however, constructs questionable elements which, as it contains explicit sex scenes, are easily transformed into devices so that dialogues do not happen and the characters go in circles in their relationships - blaming, many Sometimes, they are young adults still in their university years. In "After Ever Happy" this narrative "deception" continues. These are moments in which I use narrative devices to show maturity that happens, even when tragedies occur and are just cheap and dramatic out of proportion. After the conclusion of the previous film, it was expected that the conclusion would happen, bringing the "happily ever after" of the romances and maintaining the message that love overcomes everything. However, the fourth film in the franchise ends on a cliffhanger so that the story takes on new directions and Tessa and Hardin separate, trying to overcome their problems and possible disagreements.

    The script is weak, with dialogues that are repeated and do not evolve the main characters. The protagonist's "redemption" does not happen as it should and the protagonist is always at the mercy of her boyfriend's explosive acts, constantly trying to "fix" him and even forgetting herself. And, in 105 minutes of film, everything becomes tiring, an eternal back and forth that doesn't help any of the protagonists - only confirming that they are better apart than together. In the midst of the turmoil, a series of almost disconnected conflicts makes the protagonists meet and clash dozens of times. The events, in fact, do not have any depth and seem to be thrown into history without context, without justification and without solution. Not even the sexual sequences manage to entertain or convince that there is passion between the protagonists, who deliver a problematic and tepid romance.

    If for a few moments there is hope that Tessa will really realize that maybe it's not that healthy to be with someone who in a few seconds turns into an aggressive person and runs away at the first friction, hope goes down the drain every time the protagonist meets with Hardin. The film insists on the same formula as the other three and seems like a back-and-forth sequence between an influenceable girl and a totally spoiled guy. The plot remains very fragile - it doesn't deliver power and fails to move people. The script even tries to show a more mature and different side of Hardin, but ends up falling into sameness. To top it off, anyone who believed that the film could be the last chapter of the saga was completely mistaken. At the end, the words "To be continued..." appear on the screen. It seems like the story still has a long way to go... for the fifth film, it's easy to make predictions if it follows the same path as the others: Hardin and Tess will probably continue in a yo-yo relationship, and the script should present an unconvincing drama. The soundtrack is what alleviates the criticism of "After Ever Happy". An interesting curation fills almost every scene in the film, with melodies that fit the passages and metropolitan settings, whether on opposite coasts of the United States or in London.

    "After Ever Happy" is a journey of maturity through the painful blows that life deals. This message, in this specific chapter, reaches the audience in a more sober way, but the weak point of the plot is not taking the time to introduce romance amidst the drama. The attempt to resolve everything through sex, which is even mentioned by Hardin's character at one point, reflects what this series has been about since the first film in the franchise. The fact that the dilemmas dissolve after sex is clear proof that the production only has eyes for an exclusive niche: the teenage audience. It is inevitable that all other age groups will feel affronted by the lack of depth and the inability to better work with everything that surrounds the protagonists. Annul yourself and sink into someone else's astral hell. Provide redemption for the bad boy of the day. Of course, in the midst of this there are Hardin's journeys to overcome his alcohol addiction and the endless family dilemmas that actually confuse more than they involve, they are there at the heart of these trajectories, but they are not well managed by the maestro of this game. Of love proposed since the first film.

    The script in this fourth chapter, once again, is not interested in addictions, emotional dependencies, skeletons in the closet, clumsy attempts at reconciliation and the real difficulties faced in the field of love. There is an absolutely synthetic tone permeating this fairy tale whose very thin veneer of seriousness is not enough to cover up the false texture of idealization. Director Castille Landon is more concerned with showing that the car's doors open upwards - which accentuates the car's luxury - than with giving believable insights into Hardin and Tessa's experience. Another weak point is the thump of certain transitions. An example of this is the scene with Tessa returning to the United States after the turmoil in England. In an instant, she's walking into her apartment, experiencing that feeling of loneliness and defeatist disillusionment. In the other, the one immediately after, she finds someone unconscious and plunges into a tragedy. The audience doesn't even have time to assimilate the feeling of personal defeat of the female protagonist who returns home with a bitter taste and already has to face a grief that messes everything up. Nothing there is important, except the creation of more barriers for Romeo with the bad boy look from a jean's advertisement and for Juliet with unconvincing outbursts of personal emancipation. Thorny issues (addiction, aggression, guilt) take on the appearance of banal obstacles.

    "After Ever Happy" is infinitely better than the previous two (as the couple is shaken for a good part of the film, there is practically only one sex scene here, one at the beginning and one at the end), but here even that can't be helped. If you talk about it as if it were a positive thing, after all, the ruler was down there. The only justification, perhaps, is that with this film, their relationship begins to finally change the status quo of the main couple's dynamics. This, like the others in the saga, is an empty, purposeless film that simply fails to show that it needed to exist. It is still disrespectful to release so many empty films, which could be summarized in fifteen minutes, without any purpose.

    The film takes human problems, all too human, lightly, in a teenage romance in which everyone is beautiful and in which obstacles are considered problems only because they can delay the long-awaited "happily ever after". Hardin and Tessa do not exist in isolation, being umbilically linked to each other. When she asks for time, we witness his suffering. When he arrives after some time of absence, we are treated to her tension. Furthermore, silences practically do not exist. When there is no dialogue, the scenes are packed with generic melodies that sometimes serve as an unnecessary frame, sometimes like a melodic reiteration of silly dramas. In the end, the feeling that remains is that the "After" franchise could have fewer films or be a TV series on a streaming platform. It would still be the best option for the franchise that kind of seemed like it would conclude its journey in this story, but from what was shown in the final scenes, it only proves that there is still more to tell, even if this story has already been stretched and reheated over four films.
  • grahamvr - 12 May 2023
    PLEASE NO MORE
    Why, why, why do these movies keep getting made, they are getting worse with each one. Flashback after flashback explains how it got to where it is. Now I even see there is another one in pre production.

    I realise these must be aimed at a young audience but really. Hero Fiennes Tiffin has the ability to be a very good actor and it would be nice to see him in something better than this series of movies.

    Oh my, I still have to add 147 more letters into my comment. How to do this is becoming impossible. I am almost 80 years of age and sadly today's movies do not come up to the standard of this created by the great classic. Directors.
  • hopeesser12 - 29 December 2022
    Each movie gets better
    I see a lot of reviews on this and how a lot of people are giving it a 1/10, to that I'm sorry to the producers and especially the author. This is a really good movie and so are the books. Yes it's a toxic relationship but watch how they grow as people from LIFE. The cards they are dealt whatever. Hardin had A LOT to work on but so does Tess. That's it though its compromising with each other and making it work because you love one another. I get more excited when I hear they are working on another movie because each one is better than the one before. I truly believe that by the last made movie of the AFTER series we will find both Hardin and Tessa happy with the lives they are living either together or apart they will make it work. You just need to have faith.
  • mieriks - 8 November 2022
    Still no change
    This movie, about the two lovers who discover that they are not so different from each other, is nothing more than a "remake" of After We Collided (2020) and After We Fell (2021). I was really about to get the feeling of that the movie was finally doing the right thing when Tessa actually decided to break up with Hardin. I was thinking that the movie had stepped up the game. But disappointing enough, they get tempted again. They still try to see each other, and the same problems are appearing again and again. When does it end? I really needed some change, because I think the production is losing the understanding of movies' purpose. When the wanted good things are not working in the story, why not use the "negative" things? They are often the solution of these kind of problems. Sometimes, the story has to get a sad ending. A movie is supposed to reach our feelings, and that happens if something unexpected happens. Why do the actions of this movie repeat themselves? Does the production think that we need more of the couple's problems?
  • mejaflora - 30 September 2022
    on and off crap fest
    So lets imagine these 2 are my best friends and I have the unfortunate luck of watching their so called on and off relationship go up and down, misunderstandings, fights, bickering, break ups, sudden hook ups and then break up again. You know what, after the first movie, i'm breaking up with these 2 friends.

    If you cannot listen and talk like normal adults and stop giving stupid ultimatums, walk offs, grouchy growls every single second, then maybe just maybe we can be friends again.

    Maybe go learn from kdramas on how to handle romance. Feel good romance. This is just horrible drivel stressful to life.
  • keydreaming - 23 September 2022
    Something missing
    After watching the 4th movie of the series I'm still confused about why they decided to ghost Zed from the books. In my opinion it was a missed opportunity to explain some of Hardin's reactions. And it shows in every episode.

    As usual, I would say that Hardin & Tessa's problems are fixed too easily and quickly. At least this is how I react to this movie once again.

    I still think today, that After needs to be a series with more development and not just a 90 min movie per book. Because Hardin really looks toxic in the books. Even we wouldn't forgive him for every disgusting things he has done without thinking it was wrong before Tessa's reactions.