After Thought Review

When I was watching After Thought, I was impressed with the quality of the film in terms of the editing, and post-production effects. The use of the almost negative colours to separate the imagined from reality was something that I liked. I also was impressed with the lack of continuity errors, which are often common when filming multiple scenes portraying the same event.

Then the film ended, and I realised I had no idea what the narrative was actually about. As far as I could tell, a man had been beaten up, and for some reason every time he saw his reflection, he began to wonder the ways in which he wouldn't take a fist to the face. Granted this allowed for some interesting editing, and a stylish final product, but it just lacked any substance, and we were left wondering who, what, where and why? That's too many unanswered w's for my liking.

The soundtrack was a large redeeming factor in the film. An original score, it superbly picked up pace when needed, with quick beats accompanying the action, and then dropping down to a slow piano melody during the contemplation scenes. This gave the film a professional feel to it, and I was impressed that it wasn't someone else's work.

Overall, the technical aspects of the film were brilliantly done. The camerawork, editing and soundtrack were huge highlights. Where After Thought falls down is the plot. There just didn't really seem to be a plot the audience could follow. It is understandable that 5 minutes isn't a huge amount of time for a full narrative to play out, but still, it could have been better.