Mads Mikkelson is dazzling as Jacob, a Bombay orphanage worker, in "After the Wedding." He's so good here I'd love to see him in a more complex film. Sidse Babett Knudsen is fetchingly pretty and natural as Helene, a rich man's trophy wife, though she isn't given much to do except be pretty, supportive, and an occasional sex object. I'd really like to see what Knudsen could do with a role in which she exhibited some agency.
Other than their fine performances, though, "After the Wedding" is a melodrama with a plot so implausible it's virtually impossible to be deeply moved by the movie's many crashing cymbal moments: Terminal illness! Reunited relatives! Big-eyed, Third World orphans! Cheatin' spouses! Billionaires! Slum dwellers! Drugs! Sex! Captive deer! Long lost lovers! Secrets! Lies! The only plot elements missing are a Holocaust survivor and a child's puppy getting run over by a car (driven by that child's long lost father, who donated a kidney to the puppy - or something. Maybe that will appear in the sequel.) Sure, these moments are often quite effective for their shock value, and for their ability to draw a tear from the actors on screen and viewers in the audience, but there are so many of them, some of them apparently having no relation to whatever the overall point of the movie is, that, at the end of the roller-coaster ride, you've left pretty empty. The movie purposely ends abruptly, without providing any answers to its biggest questions; this is a cheat. The filmmakers are very good at foreplay, but lack what it takes for follow through.
Other than their fine performances, though, "After the Wedding" is a melodrama with a plot so implausible it's virtually impossible to be deeply moved by the movie's many crashing cymbal moments: Terminal illness! Reunited relatives! Big-eyed, Third World orphans! Cheatin' spouses! Billionaires! Slum dwellers! Drugs! Sex! Captive deer! Long lost lovers! Secrets! Lies! The only plot elements missing are a Holocaust survivor and a child's puppy getting run over by a car (driven by that child's long lost father, who donated a kidney to the puppy - or something. Maybe that will appear in the sequel.) Sure, these moments are often quite effective for their shock value, and for their ability to draw a tear from the actors on screen and viewers in the audience, but there are so many of them, some of them apparently having no relation to whatever the overall point of the movie is, that, at the end of the roller-coaster ride, you've left pretty empty. The movie purposely ends abruptly, without providing any answers to its biggest questions; this is a cheat. The filmmakers are very good at foreplay, but lack what it takes for follow through.