→ Aftershocks:
Michelle
Williams, Billy
Crudup, and
Julianne Moore
A SURPRISE ART-HOUSE HIT, THE
original Danish After the Wedding
earned a 2007 Oscar nod and helped
introduce American audiences to the
severe Scandi charisma of Mads
Mikkelsen, future star of Doctor
Strange and TV’s Hannibal. Director
Bart Freundlich (Trust the Man)
brings his own movie stars to this
glossy, melancholy American
remake, including his wife, Julianne
Moore, and enough high-end real
estate to drive Nancy Meyers mad
with throw-pillow envy. He’s also
switched the protagonists’ genders:
Michelle Williams is Isabel, an aid
worker reluctantly called back from
India when a mysterious benefactor
offers a confoundingly large dona-
tion, provided she comes to New
York to collect it. But what exactly
does the brisk, bossy Theresa (Moore)
think she’s buying with her money?
The answer becomes both clearer
and much more complicated when
Isabel is politely coerced to join a
family celebration before the final
papers are signed—and locks eyes
with Theresa’s startled husband
(Billy Crudup). If the story’s epipha-
nies don’t feel quite as shocking or
profound the second time around,
it’s still pleasing to watch these beau-
tiful, troubled people move through
their equally beautiful spaces; some-
thing borrowed, something
blue—and with Freundlich’s careful
alterations, something new. B
After the Wedding
STARRING Michelle Williams, Julianne
Moore, Billy Crudup
DIRECTED BYBart Freundlich
RATING
+ TIME PG-13 1 hr., 50 mins.
REVIEW BY Leah Greenblatt
@Leahbats
Samara
Weaving
BREAKING BIG
Gory Days
The Australian actress’
credits range from soap
operas to Oscar winners
(Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri). But to
horror fans, she is best
known for Starz’s Ash vs
Evil Dead and 2017’s
Mayhem. The irony? “I
can’t personally watch
scary movies,” says
Weaving, 27, the niece of
Matrix star Hugo Weav-
ing. “I get too afraid.”
One Wedding,
Many Funerals
In Ready or Not, Weaving
is a new bride who has to
spend her wedding night
playing a lethal game of
hide-and-seek with her
in-laws, including Andie
MacDowell. “I acciden-
tally whacked her in the
face with a stunt brick,”
says Weaving. “I really
thought I was going to
get fired, but she was
cool about it.”
Bill & Ted &
Samara
After wrapping her role
as a “lovable psycho” in
the Daniel Radcliffe-
starring action-comedy
Guns Akimbo, Weaving
spent the summer
shooting Bill & Ted Face
the Music (out August
2020) with Alex Winter
and Keanu Reeves. “It’s
so great to see them do
those characters again,”
she says. “It’s surreal.”
WHY YOU KNOW HER PLAYED THE TITULAR ROLE IN NETFLIX’S 2017 HIT THE BABYSITTER
WHY YOU WILL KNOW HER CURRENTLY STARRING IN READY OR NOT (AUG. 21)
EW ● COM SEPTEMBER 2019 79
AFTER THE WEDDING
: DAVID GIESBRECHT/SONY PICTURES CLASSICS; WEAVING: JIRO SCHNEIDER/AUGUST
