The Aftermath – Review

The Aftermath film review; World War II, Keira KnightleyDirected by: James Kent

Runtime: 108 post-war blue minutes

The Aftermath opens with a birds-eye view of buildings exploding under the pressure of a bombing barrage. We are unsure if they are British buildings or German ones. Both countries received their fair share of airstrikes in World War II, and The Aftermath is really about how war leaves wounds in the psyches of nations, using its characters’ interpersonal flaws to expose them.

Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke) is an officer in the British army, looking to help secure Hamburg in the post-World War II restructuring of Germany after an Allied victory. Several months after accepting his post, his wife, Rachael (Keira Knightley), relocates to Hamburg too. With Germany in rubble and the German upper-class ousted from power, regardless of whether or not they personally supported the Nazis, Lewis and Rachael inherit a rather large German mansion overlooking the Rhine. Rachael is no fan of Nazis, because of the war, and because she and Lewis lost a child in the London bombings. Lewis fought vigilantly against the Nazis, but understands that they are people too. He doesn’t want to kick out the former owner of the mansion, Stefan (Alexander Skarsgard), or his daughter, Heike (Anna Katharina Schimrigk). She doesn’t like the Allies because her mother and Stefan’s wife died in a bombing of Germany. War equals bad.

The Aftermath has a few interesting things to say about war, although I’m not sure they needed to be said, nor that this was the best way to say them. I did find it interesting when Rachael was confronted by the implication that the stain in her new living room is left behind by the removed picture of the Fuhrer. “It’s all very simple to you, isn’t it?” Stefan asks her when she aggressively confronts him about a picture of Hitler once being displayed by her housemate, despite his alleged non-support of the Nazi Party. It is easy for her, and for many audience members to not understand the pressures of needing to operate in Nazi Germany. That would have made an interesting film, and Schindler’s List (1993) is going to be remembered for a much longer time than this film because of its addressing of grander issues than whether or not the not-Nazi is out of line for hitting on the woman downstairs. Which he does, almost to spite her, but also out of great lust for this woman who seems to show him nothing but contempt.

Rachael and Stefan start hooking up behind Lewis’s back. The root of their attraction to each other is not firmly established. Rachael seems to feel abandoned by Lewis, who takes his work duty more seriously than his husband duties. Stefan is impressed that Rachael can play the piano. Stefan misses having a wife, while Rachael misses being a mother. Plus Stefan looks good chopping wood and Rachael looks good in formal wear. Still, it feels like their attraction is an odd tone for this plot, which could have become a slasher with either as the killer, once that wood-chopping axe has been established.

None of the characters are particularly likeable, or easy to relate to given the nature of period pieces. They are at the mercy of their most base impulses, or constantly reject their impulses to the point of pushing away their humanity. But that frustrating behaviour from people is human-like. I don’t require characters in film to be better parts of the human condition, but I can understand why people would find Knightley’s Rachael morally feeble, Skarsgard’s Stefan is sexually aggressive, or Clarke’s Lewis as way too bottled up and neglectful. You feel sorry for them despite themselves, and not because of themselves

The greatest emotional revolution comes towards the end of the film. Without spoiling anything, the “Britishness” of avoiding tragedies and personal losses is emphasised with the revelation of something truly shocking. Knightley does an admirable job with her role as Rachael, but it is Clarke who gives the film’s most powerful and varied performance as the stiff-lipped Lewis.

The triangle comes together with a satisfying conclusion that subverted my expectations. There is maturity in The Aftermath. It is based on a novel by Rhidian Brook, which may toggle between the interpersonal issues of these characters and the post-war environment of a fractured Germany with more nuance and poignancy. The Aftermath manages to allude to this poignancy, and treats its themes with appreciation, but requires audiences to look for it. Appreciators of period pieces and dedicated performances will probably enjoy this the most.

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