Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to our screens in a dramatic role as a man who looses his family in an horrific air collision. Checkout my review of AFTERMATH after the jump...
There's this weird thing happening at the moment with 80s action superstars, they seem to be doing this thing called acting. Proper acting. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way but star like Stallone and Schwarzenegger were never really known as dramatic actors. Sure Stallone started his career with dramatic roles in Rocky, F.I.S.T and Paradise Alley and more recently a much deserved Oscar nomination for his return to the role of Balboa and in the fantastic Rocky spin-off, Creed. So Stallone does have a dramatic bone somewhere in his body. However, Arnold "I'll Be Back"Schwarzenegger has never really shown us his dramatic side. We've seen his comedic side in countless movies and the dude is pretty funny but we all know Arnie for his muscle bound, explosion filled Action flicks of the 80s and 90s (some of you may even remember his terrible 70s movies too). So After stepping away from the movies for what seemed like forever, who'd have thought the 68 year old former Mr Olympia would come back and seemingly learnt how to act? Well it's happened. Sure some of his return movies are a bit on the shitty side, The Last Stand was pretty fun and Escape Plan had it's moments but Terminator Genesys and Maggie were less than impressive. AFTERMATH is a straight up drama and Arnold does an impressive job infront of the camera. The film is a two hander and both leads are fantastic. Lets have a look at the plot for the film.Aftermath takes place over the course of about 12 years. Schwarzenegger play Roman, a construction worker waiting for his wife and pregnant daughter's plane to arrive. When he asks the desk about the flight he's escorted to a room and told that the plane has crashed and that his family are most likely dead. The worst news anyone wants to here.
Scoot McNairy plays Jacob, an air traffic controller, who makes a mistake which unfortunately causes a mid air collision. Aftermath follows both men as one grieves and the other suffers the fate of knowing that he may have been responsible for the death of 271 people, culminating in a moment of violence that changes both their lives forever.
It's got be said for a film that stars a full on action superstar, Schwarzenegger puts in a fine performance as the older family man who's life is shattered by an unfortunate accident. He plays Roman as a vulnerable man, a broken man with what seems like nothing to live for. His quest to find the man who he believes to be the man responsible for his families deaths, just to get an apology as no one has apologised is worth watching.
McNairy puts in a heart break performance as Jacob. His life was great before the accident and his break down when he discovers the size of the tragedy is brilliant, his performance is just so good. Then when we follow his life after, the break up with his wife and not seeing his son makes you feel for him. The film plays on the viewers sympathies for both characters as neither are horrible people, just victims of a horrible tragedy and it make you feel for both.
The film isn't without its flaws. The film's run time is on 92 minutes and we don't get much in the way of character development on either character which is sad because if there was a bit more on the backgrounds of the two leads, the film could have been that bit more devastating. It's a depressing film but it does sometimes leave you cold.
The ending also feels like it's been tacked on. It doesn't feel like it belongs in this movie. I won't spoil it but you'll see what i mean by characters certain motivations. I enjoyed the film. This is rare when it comes to films produced by Grindstone Entertainment whose films usually leave me with a sense of "Meh", but Aftermath actually had me interested in the film which is a good thing. So if you want to see Arnie doing proper acting then you could do worse than Aftermath, it's a short film but it doesn't drag. It's nicely shot too which helps. Aftermath gets 3 revolvers from this guy...
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