Aftersun (2022)
This didn’t do a whole lot for me, though I do like and appreciate many things it does. It helped a lot to let it linger for a day to gather my thoughts and read other peoples perspective about it. I understand and like how this movie tells its story and I can see why it resonates with a lot of people, but it didn’t move me that much. I am sure it will stay in my memory, so could be revisited in some years.
The depiction of this rather mundane vacation through a lense of Sophie’s memory is an effective choice, that helps underline her experience and how she might have tried to find meaning in what tragic event that occurs to her father at some point later in her life. I don’t really see it is a coming of age film, but rather a narrow pinpoint in how life is experienced on the threshold towards becoming a teenager. Sophie is clearly drawn to the older kids and their activities, but she is still very much rooted in childhood and really just enjoys spending time with her father. We can see that her father has some sort of depression or mental struggle, but we never get under his skin to understand what is going on in his mind. And this is where I become conflicted with my views on this, because it makes perfect sense that we see the father like this mostly through Sophie’s frame of reference and therefore not really able to dig deeper at what is going on. But as a viewer I felt like I was missing some insight into his character to be able to properly connection with the emotional narrative of both him and Sophie. It would also have been a completely different movie if took that route, and I generally really like the approach this movie has with being vague, uncertain and subtle about actual events and letting Sophie’s memory of that vacation speak for itself. I just simply wasn’t moved in any way at all like many other people seem to have been.
Rating: 3.5