After.Life 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Clean, precise and terribly sullen, After.Life is like its female protagonist. It feels stuck between worlds, or genres. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Wojtowicz-Vosloo certainly knows how to use a camera. Now she just needs to learn how to entertain an audience - or at least come up with a film that doesn't try so hard to be profound yet has absolutely nothing to say... Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The dialogue is clumsy, the tone swings between somber and silly and the whole bizarre venture eventually succumbs to rigor mortis. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Maddeningly inert [and] caught in a pretentious no-man's land between horror and melodrama. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Best of all is Neeson, who is nicely creepy. Whether he's genuinely gifted or knuckle-chewing insane, he's not the kind of guy you'd want to spend time with, either way. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Thematic rigor mortis sets in long before the final reel. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [Ricci] has to operate, unfazed, in close-up nakedness much of the time, while the camera practically licks her pale skin. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Neither horrific enough to scare, nor psychologically thrilling enough to even register a pulse. And whatever fun there is to be found, and there were hoots aplenty, it's of the "laughing at, not with" variety. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Neeson's right -- something's definitely deceased here. But it's the whole picture. And a swift interment on DVD and late-night cable seems in the best interest of everyone. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: It dresses up boilerplate horror in a classy shell, yet never gives it the pulse it needs. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: While nobody comes out especially well, Ricci is the only one required to spend much of the movie naked. And for what? Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: I don't think we're expected to take After.Life any more seriously than Ricci's last extended (near) nude role in the immortal Black Snake Moan. That one was more fun. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's too dull for grown-ups and too nightmarish for children. It makes Nip/Tuck look like a Mel Brooks musical. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I admire filmmakers who take chances and defy expectations. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I think, in a way, the film short-changes itself by not coming down on one side or the other. As it stands, it's a framework for horror situations but cannot be anything deeper. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: A few moments of grim humor simply underline long stretches of tedium, and the imagery is full of spook film cliches. Although there's a juicy role for Liam Neeson, and he's good, it's just not enough. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Neeson clearly relishes the role, but he never plays to the cheap seats by going whole-hog psychotic. The character's motivations remain tantalizingly opaque from first frame to last. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: On a plot level, few of the psychodrama elements make much sense. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice: What might have played well as a multipage Poe rumination gradually gets pulled to bits by thudding Ricci-Neeson face-offs in the poster-ready funeral-prep chamber. Read more