Aftermath (2017)

One doesn't often think of quiet movies when they think of Schwarzenegger. His post-gubernatorial film career has been mostly attempts to reclaim his action hero status, especially in franchises which play on his past. Which makes Aftermath quite a detour for this actor perhaps trying to find a new way forward.

Based loosely on true events, Aftermath follows the, well, aftermath of a plane crash on the air traffic controller who may be responsible and the average man who lost his family on the flight. Director Elliott Lester approaches the story very matter-of-factly. He doesn't egregiously create melodrama, instead walking through the rather mundane nature of how the business of addressing all the details which must be attended to after an accident like this. We watch as Arnold is given the horrible news, how the air traffic controller reacts when he realize what's happened, how life has to go on, and how the business of cleaning up the situation plays out.

In Schwarzenegger's favour he pulls it off. After all these years he's learned to act. His performance is mostly restrained but I think that works as the film simmers towards its tragic conclusion. Scoot McNairy, who I always find very compelling to watch, is also powerful in a role which easily could have been over the top. Lester just lets us watch them struggle. He doesn't set up major set pieces to tell his story but focuses more on their day to day lives as they both try to figure out how to live again.

Unfortunately the hook of this movie is its ending, based on what occurred in the real story.  The movie does what I felt was a great job of just showing us people surviving through something unimaginable. And then it comes to its end moment and loses much of the reality it had built until then. I never felt the film built up to that moment and made it feel honest, organic. It just sort of happens. And it feels somewhat contrived.

But the film ends on a note more like what it had done until then, exploring the mundane nature of the extraordinary moments in our lives. I think if the film had simply spent more time building to that moment it may have been better. The film does give Arnold some catharsis and the film offers us something mostly interesting, including a strong and subtle performance by one of Hollywood's biggest stars not known for giving strong or subtle performances.

Aftermath
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace
Director: Elliott Lester
Writer: Javier Gullon