Aftermath (2017)

(In French, On TV, April 2020) I thought I knew all about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography, but his post-political career has been far less visible than his glory years—he’s now working in low-to-medium-budget films, not quite successfully adapting to post-action-star status and often springing for cameos rather than starring roles. Unlike other actors of his generation, he hasn’t been able to completely transition into supporting roles in films where others are the action stars. Aftermath, which frankly slipped under my radar, is a near-perfect example of these new expectations. It’s a fairly dull thriller, made slightly more respectable in how it’s (loosely) based on a true story. Here, Schwarzenegger plays a grieving family man who decides to take revenge on the man who organized the plane bombing that killed his wife and daughter. The rest of the film is a revenge story, but not a triumphant one—director Elliott Lester handles the downbeat drama script appropriately, which is to say in antiheroic cinematography, slow pacing, bad character decisions and melancholic atmosphere. What doesn’t help this dispiriting premise is the film’s slow, linear and surprise-less execution, even late in the film when there’s something meant to be shocking. Aftermath is a far, far different cinematic animal than the action films that made Schwarzenegger an improbable household name. To his credit, he does deliver a fair performance as a dramatic actor (and one has to appreciate how he’s not being pushed in becoming an implausible action hero) but it raises two questions—is Aftermath a kind of film suited to someone like Schwarzenegger, and two; is this Schwarzenegger’s best use of his time?