114. The Aftermath; movie review

THE AFTERMATH
Cert 15
109 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, violence

I'm far from a prude but The Aftermath did leave me posing the question: "Was the sucking nipple scene really necessary?"
I already feel as if I have an intimate knowledge of Keira Knightley's top half thanks to various films, including the recent Collette, but this sex scene was on a whole new level.
The sense of this being exploitative during The Aftermath is heightened because neither of her co-stars, Alexander Skarsgård and Jason Clarke, shows off their private parts during bedroom scenes.
This is rather incongruous at a time of the worldwide #MeToo campaign, isn't it?
I suppose I am writing about this because I took little else from The Aftermath which struck me as mere melodramatic fantasy.
Set in the embers of World War II in bomb-wrecked Hamburg, it stars Knightley as the wife of an English colonel who is reunited with her husband (Clarke) after years apart.
They are accommodated in a mansion which belongs to a German architect (Skarsgård) who lives there with his daughter (Flora Thiemann) and staff.
The Germans are due to be sent to a camp but the colonel makes a generous if ill-fated offer to allow them to stay on the first floor of the property.
On the upside, James Kent's adaptation of Rhidian Brook's novel gives a very graphic view of the wreckage of Germany following the end of the war and drills into the raw emotions on both sides.
It also delves into the psychological effects of war and losing someone very close.
And the cast gives their best shot - Clarke's repressed English officer being the pick of the bunch.
On the downside, it concentrates on a romance which, I found trite. Particularly unbelievable is that one minute, Knightley's character is a German hater and the next she is in bed with one.
And its ending is frankly predictable and ludicrous on several levels.

Reasons to watch: The recreation of bombed Hamburg after the war
Reasons to avoid: Its ludicrous love story

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 5/10

Did you know? From July 24 to August 3, 1943, the allied forces executed ‘Operation Gomorrah' which left a large part of the city of Hamburg in total ruin, leaving 35,000 dead and 125,000 people injured.

The final word. James Kent: "It is inspired in a way by a true story, because Rhidian (Brook)’s own grandfather was a colonel in Hamburg and also took charge of a German house and allowed the German family, very unusually, to stay in the house."

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