The Aftermath

"At the beginning of this period drama, set amidst the ruins and ramifications of occupied Germany just after the merciful end of World War II, Keira Knightley’s character Rachael Morgan, an English military wife long separated from her husband, arrives in Hamburg by train. On the platform she awkwardly greets the uniformed Lewis (Jason Clarke). It’s not clear if they’re married or merely distant siblings, but the scrambled current between them is overwhelmed by the period detail: the engine smoke that must clear for the couple to sight each other, the intricacies of the costumes, and the choreographed bustle of extras."

"Will please a select audience starved for grown-up comfort viewing..."

"You may well enjoy this unusual love story: for its performances, its strong sense of time and place, and its vivid reminder that a war's official end is never really anything of the kind."

"The well-intentioned performances lead nowhere."

"Keira Knightley shines in solid, but unspectacular period piece."

"This slightly stodgy drama is elevated by the presence of Australian actor Clarke, who commands attention a as the weary British Colonel weighed down by years of incessant tragedy."

"The pressure that all three protagonists are under feels genuinely affecting, as the film knows to linger on the morally thorny and painful moments that its story entails."

"Where it might have been an old-fashioned melodrama with credible historical appeal, instead it suggests an old-school celluloid epic whose print has lost a reel or two."

"The bones of the story have been played a million times, but a talented and committed cast make this swoonsome rather than samey."