Aftersun
At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.
- Released: 2022-10-21
- Runtime: 101 minutes
- Genre: Drama
- Stars: Frankie Corio, Paul Mescal, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham, Ayse Parlak, Sophia Lamanova, Brooklyn Toulson, Spike Fearn, Harry Perdios, Frank Corio, Ruby Thompson, Ethan James Smith, Onur Ekşioğlu, Cafer Karahan, Kayleigh Coleman, John Stuifzand, Tyler Mutlu, Kieran Burton, Nijat Gachayev, Sarah Makharine, Erol Cengizalp
- Director: Charlotte Wells
Comments
- llundber - 19 May 2024
Outline from which you fill in your own details
It's hard to read the reviews that "don't get it" because such folks really do not get it, or likely much else in life.
This movie provides a skeleton upon which you are invited to fill in the missing 29 years and 50 weeks.
Each character could be anyone in a parent child relationship.
Anyone in a harrowing mental agony accompanied by a friend or loved one doing the most to be present - to the best of their ability and understanding.
Yet incapable of always being perfect.
You can take it face value or you can add all you wish. It's a gift to you from the director.
I found it wonderful in highlighting moments that meant a ton and then moments of the most mundane.
Isn't life just the same?
A hell of a lot of time existing and then so many fleeting, precious moments being, feeling and loving.
Sophie may have lost her Dad. Maybe not.
She may have had a spontaneous dream. She may have been dealing with his loss or whichever concerns for years.
We don't know. We don't have to know.
Fill in your own story. - proud_luddite - 13 March 2024
A dissenting opinion
Sophie (Frankie Corio) is an 11-year old Scottish girl who lives with her mother. Sophie and her father, Calum (Paul Mescal), who lives in London, travel to a Turkish resort for a vacation together. The film takes place during the 1990s.
This is a very highly acclaimed film that is loved by many so I feel badly about missing out on the enjoyment of it.
The bonding between father and daughter is moving but it doesn't seem to be enough to sustain the length of a movie. Subtlety is the formula in each scene. There is a lack of plot development which helps most movies maintain interest. And muddled, incomprehensible dialogue is a liability. An exception is a scene in which Calum recalls to Sophie a sad event when he was neglected by his parents. There are signs that Calum has a troubled life but this could have been further explored.
More can be appreciated when knowing important parts of the true-life story of writer/director Charlotte Wells and this is briefly explored by the film's end. But other directors have done better at using special techniques to make the apparently mundane anything from touching to fascinating. The technique of "Aftersun" is like watching the average home movies of someone we don't know. In fairness, the two lead actors play well together.
For most, this film was magnificent but unfortunately, I found it to be dull and disappointing. - dbamateurcritic. - paul2001sw-1 - 16 February 2024
Not much happens
Some films are full of dramatic action; others make the most of less. And some films of both types are highly efficient, telling you what you need to know in a single scene, whether that scence contains an explosion or just a telling glance. While some films let you spend time with their characters, to watch how they are, even if some scenes are formally unecessary or redundant if seen purely in terms of advancing the story. And generally I like films that are neither overly melodramatic nor hyper-efficient; I don't mind seeing a subtle story play out slowly. But I simply couldn't see the point of 'Aftersun', even though it was undoubetdly well acted. An eleven year-old girl goes on holidy with her still youthful, but mostly absent father. You quickly notice that each of them are emotionally protective around the other, and that something doesn't feel quite right. The mood is heightened through the intensinally confusing way the story is assembled, apparently as remembered by years later by the then-girl as an adult. But "not much happens" turns out to be pretty much a synposis of the entire film. Amind the general langour, I actually missed that we're meant to conclude that the father had committed suicide not long after the holiday; and even had I grasped it, the sadness of the daughter's remaining memories simply did not need ninety minutes to convey. Sometimes it really is better to let a single look tell the story, and move on with the story. - Mateo-EGC - 9 January 2023
Vacations with melancholic overtones
The ending touched my soul, it hurt me a lot.
A simple plot of a father and daughter having a vacation can turn into a deep and painful story.
A girl who still can't understand her father's pain, and a father who does his best to make his daughter happy. Night comes and it is there where the warm light that reflects Sophie contrasts with the cold light that reflects her father, showing the depression that floods him and the innocence of his little girl.
Once we reach the end, all the pieces of the beginning come together and everything makes sense, you understand how powerful the message is, how powerful the performances and direction were, great enough to feel sadness, pain and emptiness with its melancholic denouement. - SJW_80 - 3 January 2023
Wonderful film making. Cried my eyes out!
This movie will make you feel uneasy throughout. Like you know somethings wrong and something bad is going to happen but you just can't quite put your finger on it.
The director very skilfully edges the audience right up until the credits. It's only then that all the subtle clues fall into place and you can make your mind up about what happened because it doesn't freely give you the answer.
A film that gives you a true sense of feeling those memories and hanging onto them with loved ones.
I've never watched a film that made me feel and live the emotions as if I was in the story before. Brilliant. Absolutely heartbreakingly brilliant.
This director is amazing as are the cast. Bring tissues. - kosmasp - 28 December 2022
Like father, like ... daughter
No pun intended and yes I know it is like son - the saying that is. But in this case it is the daughter. And I think it is not that far off to do that assumption or assertion or whatever you would call it. A slow burn of a movie if there ever was one ... we start with a recording ... and a reflection. Something we will get back to later on - the theme that is, but also the recordings. Already giving us or telling us what this is ... memories.
You could call this movie simple ... it is about a vacation. It also is about a memory that recorded. But do not worry (if you did), the movie is not a found footage movie. We do get to see the two main characters interact and not film each other. We are able to see them together but also alone. We have to fill in the blanks ... and I think most viewers are able to connect the dots.
You could say that the movie did connect with many people because of the bond and relationship of the two main characters ... and the somber way it is shot. There is a culture thing (playing mostly in Turkey), a nice touch for sure. Probably it could play in other countries too. Warmer countries though for certain interactions ... what it does show is that those who care (audience wise) do make the effort to figure stuff out. And movies still believe in their viewers and the intelligence they have. Editing and score are as subtle as the rest of the movie ... - pauljonathancampbell - 22 December 2022
Just didn't connect
Beautiful visuals and a lot of subtlety. Not much is said and not a lot happens.
This is a movie about memory and therefore a sense of disconnection permeates throughout. We see a father and daughter holidaying together. Glimpses of a story are gradually pieced together, but this is much more about what goes unsaid.
It's a story about our relationships with those closest to us, how everyone in our lives has their own life they are living and their own realities they are experiencing and how often we don't or can't understand.
More than anything it's about cherishing the small moments we have with others, and the vital importance of communication. - linusfoerster-58902 - 18 December 2022
Why we cried without knowing why
A lot has been written about the fantastic performances and the tender father-daughter relationship which - by leaving out most of the backstory - invites you to project your own stuff onto (the most sophisticated way of storytelling?). The music, the cinematography, the prestigious awards this debut received and of course the talent of the writer/director are mentioned lots of times.
But despite its arthousey, sometimes maybe even improvised feel (the handheld holiday camera) this movie has a screenplay as well. And the way the story is structured is the reason why some people "left the cinema crying without even knowing why".
I was strangely moved as well. I was wondering why adult Sophie was so angry at her dad in her strobe disco dream. 10 minutes later on my way home it suddenly clicked and everything made sense. That was the moment when I started to cry.
The storyteller takes the liberty of changing the chronology of events. We have witnessed the tragedy without realising it (for a complete theory see the "landmines" review of Aftersun here on imdb which I fully support - thanks for writing that!).
For some strange reason in the European arthouse scene smart scripts are considered to be less worthy, or simply "too smart". When mundane craft collides with the metaphysical genius of the auteur. That might be the reason why the underlying tragedy of Aftersun is not widely recognised.
By the way: I don't blame people for finding this little gem slow and boring. That was a risk Charlotte Wells was taking by the subtlety of its construction. I love filmmakers who are not afraid to take risks. This movie really touched me. - rossmgod - 5 December 2022
Totally overhyped
Sorry to rain on this, but this film is so over hyped. I agree with all the 1 scores on this app. Of the 5 films i have seen this month, this was the biggest disappointment. It tries to give a deep meaning but it is so slow. I never leave films but I checked my watch so much that I wanted it to be over. The child is OK, but Paul Mescal is his Normal People character as a father. His lone scenes are just so dull. Like we saw this all before in his therapy scene. Maybe people will enjoy it if they didn't see other work of his. We needed to see more of her as an adult. Don't waste your time. Triangle of Sadness told more of a tale than this. Overhyped Mescal and overhyped film. - ops-52535 - 23 November 2022
truly...
The most boring syden-trip ever, as a father of 3 i have also done the same thing , an all boys trip to the palms and surf of the hot 30's, which was all just as forgetful as this film was(i just remember their gaming sessions in the darkest corner of the apartment for best viewconditions as possible and aqualand of course that left us fatigued for 3 days of sore and bloody feet running up the hills barefoot to do the rides and the canopener that was in absentia from the kitchen when a baked bean session where planned but deflated ). I'm sure that many people may be able to compare their trips to the story, and thats simply because they are brits and follows the time and entertainment schedule for the hotel or the trip company, with nightshows and karaoke, loads of swimming and getting scoarched by the sen even after mudling the skin with factor 30 by the pool...
well i saw, and its pure british familydrama, its laid out in a 20 year retrospective look, which in my mind should at least be a 50/50 story of now and then, because the ''now'' perspective is hardly handled, and therefore its hard to find the cause of making this film, which is some of the slowest and eventless bbc-production ive seen lately.
So now you got my story of a syden trip, and im sure everybody has one too, at least they whos been vacationing the majorca,granca, or alanya, so make a movie for us too...therefore just a 4 stars to this story, lots of heartfelt emotions, but dull, left in oblivion for the grumpy old man.
