“After the Wedding”

Susan Granger’s review of “After the Wedding” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams are talented, versatile actresses which is why it’s a shame that they’re saddled with this moody, highly improbable melodrama.

It begins with an American expatriate, Isabel Williams), running an orphanage in the slums of India. Clad in a sari with a bindi on her forehead, Isabel serenely leads meditations, distributes meals and comforts the needy, especially eight year-old Jai (Vir Pachisia), who is obviously her favorite.

Eager to raise money to care for these children, Isabel is summoned to New York for a promised multi-million donation. That’s where she warily meets her benefactor, entrepreneur/philanthropist Theresa (Moore), who is preoccupied with the upcoming weekend wedding of her daughter Grace (Abby Quinn) – to which Isabel is immediately invited.

Arriving late to the extravagant ceremony at their woodsy home on Long Island, Isabel is shocked when she spies Theresa’s sculptor husband Oscar (Billy Crudup) and he recognizes her. Obviously, they knew each other before. 

Ludicrous secrets and lies subsequently surface, involving not only the three of them but also Grace and Theresa/Oscar’s young twin boys (Tre Ryder, Azhy Robertson).

There’s little originality in this glossy-but-gauche, gender-reversed remake, written and directed by Moore’s husband, Bart Freundlich, tracing its antecedents back to Susanne Bier’s 2006 Danish-language drama with the same name and, before that, Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration.”

Having met in 1997 while making “The Myth of Fingerprints,” this is the fourth film on which Moore and Freundlich have collaborated, following “World Traveler” and “Trust the Man.”

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “After the Wedding” turns out to be a less than festive 5. Too bad it falls flat.

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