AnnaTodd – Credits Rolling

Oriah “Ry” Pera (Maia Reficco) was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis as a child. She takes medication to help with the seizures, but has noticed how numb it makes her feel in her day to day life. Now she is traveling alongside her mother Isolde (Eva Longoria) to Mallorca for a business trip and all she wants is some sort of normalcy. Enter Julian Garcia (Fernando Lindez). Julian is a local who works for his family’s fishing company. He’s everything that Ry is not and when sparks fly, the summer will end up changing her life forever.

Based on the novel by Anna Todd, I am actually surprised that I never got around to reading this before it’s release. After all, she was the mastermind behind the After series. Still I wasn’t expecting much going into it because it sounded like everything we’ve seen before with these young adult book to film adaptions. I put it on thinking it would serve as decent background noise while I was dealing with a migraine and cramps, but it ended up making me feel all the feels!

This is a romance and at the centre of the film is the relationship between Ry and Julian. Whilst they initially butt heads, they develop a genuine friendship and that turns into something more. Reficco and Lindez had a fiery chemistry with one another. From the very first moment they met on that nude beach to Ry singing No Scrubs to him at the bar and him showing her what he does at his job, I fell for them more and more. Some of their scenes really gave me butterflies and I hadn’t felt that since Tessa and Hardin.

I do wish there had been more development between Ry and Isolde. For mother and daughter, they seemed very surface level which may have been the point, but I would have still appreciated something more there. They could have decided to show us more of Isolde’s past in Mallorca and what brought her back to the island in a flashback. I did love the friendship between Ry and Amara (Chloe Sweetlove). It may have started off rushed, but it managed to steady and you could tell the two girls really cared for one another.

Another central part of the film focuses on Ry’s health. I’m not too familiar with epilepsy and all that goes along with it, but I do think they depicted the topic well. I read that Todd took experiences from her personal life and put them into the story so I appreciated the delicacy in which it was handled. I want to give Reficco props for her portrayal during those particular scenes. I think she performed them like a champ.

Prime have done it again! They have been on a roll with page to screen adaptions and this one is no exception. The Last Sunrise wasn’t perfect, but it more than set out with it’s intention of making me feel all weepy and quite frankly that is exactly what I was after.

Rating: ♥️♥️♥️.5

*Caution – Minor Spoilers Ahead*

Based on the worldwide phenomenon by Anna Todd, After Ever Happy is the final book in the beloved After series. Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) has just discovered his mother (Louise Lombard) has been hiding a secret from him his whole life. Turns out Ken (Rob Estes) was never his father, but rather family friend Christian Vance (Stephen Moyer) holds that title. Having his life completely turned upside down with the news, Hardin questions everything he thought he knew – including his relationship with Tessa (Josephine Langford). But Tessa has some skeletons of her own and they soon realize that they have a lot more in common than they ever could have imagined.

Though I may have only been apart of the After fandom for a little over a year now, that doesn’t mean that my expectations for the fourth and final film weren’t sky high. While it wasn’t my favorite out of the series, I remember feeling satisfied with the ending and couldn’t wait to see it play out on screen.

The chemistry between Fiennes Tiffin and Langford has always been off the charts and this time around was no exception. I don’t know how they do it, but every single time, I feel as if my heart is caught in my throat as I watch them together. You know it’s toxic and you wish they’d break up time and time again, but you still want them to make it at the end of the day.

You could, therefore, imagine my shock when the words ‘to be continued’ appeared at the end of the final scene. We all assumed this was it; Hessa were supposed to get their happily ever after! We’d see them get married and have children years in the future. Turns out the cast and crew had a surprise for us all: a fifth and proper finale that has just wrapped filming. I guess they decided to pull a Twilight and split the book in two.

On the one hand, I am pleased. If it is the rest of After Ever Happy then I don’t want them to leave any details out. But if the rumors are true, and it’s part of the sequel about their children, then they can keep it. There is also some worry that Langford wasn’t even part of it which wouldn’t make any sense.

Because of this, I have struggled to formulate my thoughts on this film. I wish we had known going into it that we were going to get more. I’m sure it would have increased my enjoyment, but that of others too.

Rating: ♥♥♥