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After Life(Après la vie)

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France, Belgium · 2002
Rated R · 2h 3m
Director Lucas Belvaux
Starring Dominique Blanc, Gilbert Melki, Ornella Muti, Catherine Frot
Genre Crime, Drama

The final installment in director Lucas Belvaux's trilogy follows Pascal, a cop who sees a return to credibility in the capture of escaped convict Bruno--who in turn is harbored by Pascal's morphine-addicted wife Agnes. Pascal's already precarious ties to Agnes are strained further when he meets and falls for her fellow schoolteacher friend Cecile. With Pascal focused on Bruno and Cecile, Agnes is forced to find a fix on her own.

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What are critics saying?

80

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

What we glean from Belvaux’s trilogy is the reassurance (rare on film, with its terror of inattention) that people are both important and unimportant, and that heroes and leading ladies, in life as in art, can fade into extras before our eyes. [Note: From a review of the entire trilogy.] [2 February 2004, p. 94]

60

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

Mr. Belvaux's sensitive, generous way with actors suggests that, with more discipline and less gimmickry, he might have made a single masterwork, and After the Life provides the best support for this assessment.

80

Variety by David Stratton

It certainly wraps the trilogy on a very powerful, emotionally draining note. It's refreshing to see the precision and audacity with which Belvaux and his excellent cast succeed in imbuing the increasingly familiar story with completely new angles, insights and nuances.

63

New York Post by Jonathan Foreman

The very effectiveness of After the Life's depiction of its main characters makes its immediate predecessor seem that much more of a waste.

80

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

At its most contemplative, The Trilogy is a stirring and shrewd portrait of lives lived in oblivious parallel. [Note: From a review of the entire trilogy.]

60

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

Doesn't function nearly as well as a standalone piece, mainly because it's stuck with the thankless task of mopping up after the other two.

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