Taglines: Every family has a secret.
Isabel (Michelle Williams) has dedicated her life to working with the children in an orphanage in Calcutta. Theresa (Julianne Moore) is the multimillionaire head of a media company who lives with her handsome artist husband (Billy Crudup) and their two adorable twin boys in New York.
When word comes to Isabel of a mysterious and generous grant for the financially struggling orphanage, she must travel to New York to meet the benefactor—Theresa—in person. And when Isabel is spontaneously invited to Theresa’s daughter’s wedding, Isabel discovers a connection to Theresa that takes her on an unexpected journey into her own past.
Adapting Susanne Bier’s Academy Award–nominated Danish film of the same title, writer / director Bart Freundlich has crafted an absorbing cinematic tale of secrets and intersecting lives. Both Williams and Moore give incredible performances and command the screen, adding nuance and depth to every scene they’re in. By cleverly changing the gender of Bier’s characters, Freundlich offers an elevated take on the film’s melodrama—and tells a rich, emotional story about strong women, motherhood, and fate.
After the Wedding is a 2019 drama film, written and directed by Bart Freundlich. It is a remake of the 2006 film of the same name by Susanne Bier. It stars Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, and Abby Quinn. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2019. It is released on August 9, 2019, by Sony Pictures Classics.
About the Story
Isabel (Michelle Williams), co-founder of an orphanage in South India, travels to New York to meet a potential benefactor, Theresa (Moore), who is about to sell her company and seeking a worthy charity to donate to. Despite her frustration at having to travel halfway across the world, Isabel agrees to the meeting, which falls the day before Theresa’s daughter Grace’s (Quinn) wedding.
At the wedding, Isabel is surprised to see Theresa’s husband is her former flame, Oscar. During Theresa’s wedding toast, she also discovers that Grace is in fact Isabel’s own daughter by Oscar, who was supposed to have been given up for adoption. Isabel learns that after the couple parted ways, Oscar secretly returned and raised Grace himself, before meeting and marrying Theresa years later.
Though denying she knew Isabel’s identity beforehand, Theresa pushes Isabel to get to know Grace and reacquaint with Oscar, and finds repeated excuses to extend Isabel’s stay. She even makes her (ever growing) donation contingent on Isabel remaining in New York.
Eventually, it transpires that Theresa is dying — a secret she has kept from her entire family. Her efforts with Isabel have been to install her as a new mother figure for both Grace and Theresa’s own eight-year-old twin boys.
By the film’s conclusion, all the secrets are out and the characters come to an understanding before Theresa’s passing. Isabel briefly returns to her orphanage, inviting the boy she rescued and raised from infancy to join her in New York.
After the Wedding (2019)
Directed by: Bart Freundlich
Starring: Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Will Chase, Abby Quinn, Azhy Robertson, Doris McCarthy, Susan Blackwell, Greta Quispe, Alex Cranmer, Alex Esola, John DiRenzo
Screenplay by: Bart Freundlich
Production Design by: Grace Yun
Cinematography by: Julio Macat
Film Editing by: Joseph Krings
Costume Design by: Arjun Bhasin
Set Decoration by: Colleen Rushton
Art Direction by: Starlet Jacobs, Cat Navarro
Music by: Mychael Danna
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material and some strong language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: August 9, 2019
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