AFTER.LIFE

Anna (Christina Ricci) is a demure schoolteacher who's in a relationship with besotted boyfriend Paul (Justin Long).

When the film opens, they are having sex and - for Anna at least - the experience is not enjoyable. Her mind elsewhere and Paul feels dejected.

It turns out that Anna is due at a funeral after work later that day. At said service, she catches the attention of sinister funeral director Elliot (Liam Neeson). Before he can make contact with her, she is overcome with emotion and flees.

Later that evening Paul meets Anna at a posh restaurant with the idea of proposing to her over dinner. When she arrives he begins by telling her he's been offered a promotion at work, which will entail relocating to Chicago. Misunderstanding his conversation, Anna believes he's dumping her. She is overcome with emotion of a different kind and once again flees the scene.

This time, she races away into the rainy night in her car. The next time we see her is on the funeral director's examination table. Elliot carefully undresses the motionless Anna, who is still pretty save for a gash on her forehead, and begins to place her clothes in a bin.

As Elliot prepares to remove Anna's underwear, she awakens. Elliot claims she was pronounced dead eight hours earlier, following her involvement in a car accident that evening. He even shows the confused Anna her own death certificate.

Unable to move, Anna is horrified at the news that Elliot is preparing her for her own funeral. She protests that she is still alive. "You all say the same thing," he replies nonchalantly, before leaving her to stew for a while in the empty funeral home.

Later, Elliot listens to a message left on Anna's mobile telephone by a frantic Paul. Then erases it. There's something in his menacing sneer and slow, deliberate movements that signpost Elliot as someone to be wary of.

Meanwhile, Paul visits Anna's school in search of her. When he learns that she hasn't turned into work, he visits her mother's home. She informs him that Anna was in a car crash the night before and is dead.

Paul is beyond consolation but, after his initial grieving, he gets his act together and pays a visit to the funeral home in an attempt to view Anna's body. By this point, Anna has regained movement in her limbs but is locked in the home's basement. She can hear as Paul confronts Elliot on the front door but is turned away, the funeral director declaring that there was no engagement ring on Anna's finger - therefore Paul's claim of being her fiancé must be erroneous.

"Why are you doing this to me?" pleads Anna upon Elliot's return. He maintains that she is dead - and that he has a special gift which enables him to communicate with the dead while they are still in transition to the afterlife. She's still convinced that she survived the car accident and she is, in actual fact, alive and a prisoner of a psychopath.

Well, something weird's going on - even Paul's sussed that much out. He even goes to the local cops for help. Predictably, they're not much help. It looks like it'll be up to him alone to unearth the truth - but can he do it before Anna's impending funeral in two days' time?

Unexpected assistance may come from bullied school-kid Jack (Chandler Canterbury) who feels a particular bond towards Anna...

AFTER.LIFE (unsure of the significance related to the punctuation of the film's title: I'm putting it down to simple pretentiousness) begins with an interesting premise and manages to sustain suspense for the most part.

It's fairly original - despite echoes of LOVE ME DEADLY, DEAD AND BURIED and television's "Six Feet Under" - and very stylish. The sparse sets of the funeral home's basement are coolly ambient and eye-grabbing, while the colourful surface level of Elliot's workplace is stunning in its subtle, 80s-style grandeur.

Performances are committed and convincing throughout, and director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo makes a good job of rendering Neeson creepy through canny use of low camera angles that serve to accentuate the nooks in his expressions.

Elsewhere, minute details such as nodding car accessories and Neeson's immaculately organised wardrobe help illustrate how much thought has gone into even the smallest aspects of this production. And it's great to see how immersed the A-list actors become in the project as a result. Ricci is the most endearing she's been in years, having gone off the boil somewhat since impressing in the likes of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, SLEEPY HOLLOW and BUFFALO '66.

The film lacks direction once it reaches the midway point - the plot suddenly starts to feel a little stretched, making the 103-minute running time seem a tad too long - but the performances, photography and some rather obvious but enjoyable cat-and-mouse tomfoolery as Elliot chases Anna around the empty funeral home, keeps it all ticking over.

All in all, AFTER.LIFE is a fun film. It looks good, the cast shine and the script is intelligently gripping. There is a beautiful moment about 55 minutes in where you think you know what's going on ... but stick with it, as there are more twists to come. And we get to see Ricci's tits.

Anchor Bay Entertainment's screener disc came with no extras or even menus.

The film, however, was presented uncut in a very appealing anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer. Images were clean and vibrant, with solid strong colours and no grain.

English audio was provided in 2.0 and was similarly clean and consistent.

Extras per the Anchor Bay website are set to include a director's commentary track, a Making Of documentary and the original theatrical trailer.

Recommended.

Also available on blu-ray.

Review by Stuart Willis