After We Fell (2021) - Film Review

With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing many productions to a halt in 2020, the creative team behind Anna Todd’s After series were able to film the third and fourth films back to back in Bulgaria. Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Josephine Langford reprise their roles as the tormented - and often antagonistic - lovers with many casting changes.

It was announced earlier last year that the characters of Kimberley (Vampire Diaries co-stars Arielle Kebbel is replacing Candice King), Christian Vance (Stephen Moyer is replacing How to Get Away With Murder’s Charlie Weber), Carol Young (Mira Sorvino is replacing Cruel Intentions’ Selma Blair), Landon Gibson (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Chance Perdomo is taking over the role which was previously played by Unbelievable’s Shane Paul) and Karen Scott (Frances Turner taking over from Karimah Westbrook) were recast because the original actors not being able to travel to Bulgaria due to the COVID-19 pandemic or that they were already committed to other projects. For several of the supporting roles, this is the third recast in the franchise.

It’s safe to say I’ve not had a good relationship with this series. I found both it’s prequels to be infuriating reads and two varying screen adaptations - the first being a respectable attempt to give a shallow book depth in its adaptation (having little to work with, it came across as boring and safe) and the other a fan service tick list with no character or plot structure (and a poorly disguised failed attempt to recapture the feel of an iconic film), but I felt obligated to watch and review the third instalment in Anna Todd’s new adult series. Especially as I’ve already come this far…

My optimism was low as this was the first film I was going into without reading the book, but I was expecting the same toxic melodrama - even with new talent taking the helm with Castille Landon directing the film using a script written by Sharon Soboil.

We begin After We Fell as Tessa makes a life-changing decision, revelations about her family and Hardin's past threaten to derail her plans and end the couple's intense relationship.

There’s a considerable time jump from this film to the last, with Hardin now in his final year of university and I am assuming Tessa is a year or two behind (making her a sophomore or junior) as she attempts to balance her relationship, education and internship. The chemistry between the leads continues to be lacklustre, even with the more emotional moments. Despite having a third set of actors, the supporting roles actually gave the better performances. Whereas Langford and Fiennes Tiffin still have an unbalanced chemistry, even though they’ve worked together for three years. Granted, this film had some emotionally mature scenes which both Fiennes Tiffin and Langford had moments of decent performances but the consistency wasn’t there as you’d expect from a pair playing romantic leads.

Surprisingly Soboil’s screenplay is actually the most developed in the series, not forcing endless sex scenes and instead attempting to flesh out the leads’ backstories. However, with the removal of the sensationalised melodrama, theatrical sex scenes and toxic arguments that treaded dangerous towards emotional abuse territory from the books - the characters aren’t that developed enough to carry a plot without their toxicity… but I commend the screenwriter’s attempts. However, there’s a scene where Tessa hears some devastating news and the film never addresses it afterwards or explores her feelings after this revelation. I’m assuming they’re waiting to delve into it in After Ever Happy to do so, but you can’t bring forward a major character plot point and shelf it. This can also be said for the exclusion of Natalie’s character, who serves as a counterpart to Tessa in a recently announced prequel that is in the works which actually could’ve caused interesting conflict as she plays a more prominent part in the books.

Some of the creative choices in this film prioritise the wrong things in my opinion - especially when you realise that one of the main conflicts stem from Hardin having a dream of something that has not even happened. There were moments where I wanted to roll my eyes with exasperation, because the tension had potential before pivoting into juvenile or tedious outcomes.

However, I will say that Castille Landon is one of the better directors in this franchise. Her vision felt more like a cinematic film and not a visualisation of a FanFiction. Also her refusal to film scenes of a sexual nature that didn’t further the plot or character development demonstrated a professionalism the second film in particular lacked. The chemistry was questionable, but this film did a credit by showing characters aware of their sexuality and being responsible with protection. Yet, despite the fact that the screenwriting and directing had improved, this film lacked even weight as an individual piece and felt more like a filler film before the finale.

It’s truly rare that you could watch three films where the characters start and end in the exact same positions. It was truthfully quite laughable when I realised this. That’s another disappointment of this series as a whole, it refuses to take risks and explore who Tessa and Hardin are outside of their relationship or when they aren’t obsessed with each other. Even though the characters had moments of maturity, there weren’t much focus on their family or friendships and there wasn’t any real conflict that wasn’t surface level or quickly resolved in the 90-minute runtime. Actually, one scene that should’ve caused the most conflict was brushed aside - during one of their many arguments, Hardin cruelly implies that all of Tessa’s academic and career achievements were because of his connections. This should have caused a massive rift in their relationship, because he has just belittled everything she has worked for. Yet, it is quickly resolved.

With an ending that would surely satisfy fans, but not your average moviegoers - After We Fell ends on a lukewarm sentimental note that lacked any depth, which felt more safe than anything else.

Although in quite a few ways this film was an improvement and very nearly got one full star, I had to give it a ★½.