Knightley's character is - hello! - more sympathetic and sensual than in the novel, while Clarke's is more one-dimensional, to the point of caricature.

| Feb 21, 2020

It does not achieve the emotional resonance that it's looking for, but Keira Knightly does wear some great dresses.

| Sep 23, 2019

A shallow excuse for attractive actors to get their kit off.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 21, 2019

When all of these various plot strands do finally collide they do so with a heavy-handed thud that's both obnoxiously coincidental as well as being emotionally disingenuous.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 1, 2019

Its moves are telegraphed to anyone who's ever seen a stately period romance, and its handsome production can't overcome its myriad clichés.

| Original Score: C | Mar 29, 2019

The Aftermath wants to be a great war romance, but it's stuck inside of Hamburg with the Casablanca blues again.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 28, 2019

"The Aftermath" is a lot of pretty mush. Or, rather, it's like suds; its lovely bubbles pop, leaving nothing behind.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 26, 2019

From the moment Rachael and Stefan look into each other's eyes while we roll OUR eyes, The Aftermath is a runaway train of cornball cliches.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 22, 2019

A soapy wartime melodrama with a disturbing whiff of both sides-ism.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 22, 2019

It's an enjoyable deviation from the typical war story, but if there were more layers of warmth and stronger emotional connections between the characters, it could have built to a more satisfying conclusion.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 21, 2019

Unfortunately, a weak screenplay co-written by Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel (what a pen name) drags everything down as the film takes a page from every illicit historical romance in history.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2019

From the title on down, most of the drama in The Aftermath seems to have already happened off-screen.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2019

I kept thinking of Donald Duck's nephews: For all its noble intentions, "The Aftermath" is dewey, gooey and, even with its moments, hooey.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2019

There's a ripping good story buried somewhere in "The Aftermath," an intriguing but ultimately disappointing story set in the rubble of post-World War II Germany.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 20, 2019

The movie is both ridiculous and enjoyable.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 20, 2019

There's nothing wrong with "Aftermath," but for one strange and nagging thing: To watch it is to want to be far away from its world and everyone in it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 20, 2019

I left with endless troubling questions unanswered. The melodrama turned shallow. I loved the beauty and tenderness, but I didn't believe The Aftermath.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 18, 2019

The aftermath of WW2 is a resonant topic that is totally botched here. What's left is soap opera, leaving suds that even the stellar Knightley, Skarsgård and Clarke can't rinse off their performances.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 15, 2019

An emotionally constipated movie about emotional constipation.

| Mar 15, 2019

A listlessly soapy melodrama [that], save for a little bit of modern-day nudity and bloodshed, could have been churned out 60-70 years ago and then gone largely forgotten in the ensuing decades.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 15, 2019