Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from Sundance
Danish director Susanne Bier won an Oscar for her incredible film In a Better World (2010), her second time contending for Best Foreign Language Film. The first was her equally involving and magnetic After the Wedding (2006). That earlier film is actually one of two popular foreign hits remade for US audiences with Julianne Moore in the lead role this year (recent Oscar winner Sebastián Lelio remade his own 2013 Chilean film Gloria as Gloria Bell, due in March this year). Taking over Bier’s duties on this other do-over is Moore’s husband Bart Freundlich, whose last film was the underrated 2016 Tribeca entry Wolves. In addition to bringing this story back on the screen, this is a reunion for the real-life couple with leading man Billy Crudup after the three of them collaborated on both World Traveler (2001) and Trust the Man (2005).
What’s most changed – of surprisingly few modifications overall – from the Danish original to the 2019 remake that premiered at Sundance are the genders...
Michelle Williams replaces Mads Mikkelsen to play Isabel, the director of an orphanage in India who is summoned to a booming metropolis halfway across the world to help secure an enormous donation. Upon arriving, Moore’s Theresa tells Isabel she needs more time to consider the donation and invites her to the wedding of her daughter that weekend before they meet again on Monday. At the wedding, Isabel is shocked to recognize Crudup’s Oscar, Theresa’s husband, suggesting that there is more to her trip than she originally thought.
Though Moore doesn’t possess the deep booming register that made Rolf Lassgård’s performance as the magnanimous investor and father of the bride so unforgettable, our own Nathaniel and other loyal Moore fans will be relieved and unsurprised to hear that she makes the character all her own, simultaneously conveying extraordinary gravitas and a vulnerable humanity. Williams is not as strong a choice, betraying too much emotion in nearly every scene that the stone-faced Mikkelsen was able to exhibit far more subtly (Diane Kruger, originally slated to star, would have likely been a better fit). Abby Quinn, who impressed in Landline (2017), gives the best performance after Moore as the bride-to-be.
cast & director at the premiere of "After the Wedding"
The story here, which shouldn’t be spoiled for those who haven’t seen the original, remains powerful enough on its own that this film works and should engage a wide audience. This version doesn’t make the case that foreign films that are well-received in the United States need to be remade, since some of the impact is lost in translation, but this still serves as a positive effort that, along with many other such films, will hopefully encourage moviegoers to track down the first one. And it might just put Moore back on the Oscar map this year.