AFTER WE FELL
We Keep Falling for Tessa and Hardin's Passion
And we’re back with another film in the After series with the third installment, After We Fell. For those who need a refresher, the movie series is based on Anna Todd’s After book series. There are currently seven books in the series, and six have been confirmed for movie adaptations. The series follows the tumultuous and sexy relationship between college students Tessa (Josephine Langford, sister of Katherine Langford) and Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin, son of Ralph Fiennes), and can be described as sort of Fifty Shades of Grey for a younger set, but not that much younger, these movies are still rated R. Think of them as erotic dramas for the older Gen Z, young Millennial crowd, while Fifty Shades was erotic drama for the Gen Y and Boomer crew. And, much like the Fifty Shades of Grey series, the After books also came from fan fiction. In this case it was One Direction, specifically Harry Styles, fan fiction and not Twilight, though Hardin and Styles do not actually share any similarities.
According to Deadline “After We Fell follows Tessa’s life as it begins to come unglued. Nothing is what she thought it was. Not her friends. Not her family. The one person she should be able to rely on, Hardin, is furious when he discovers the massive secret she’s been keeping. And rather than being understanding, he turns to sabotage.” Ok, Tessa and Hardin have already been through some serious ups and downs in their relationship. In the first film, it is revealed that Hardin only pursued Tessa romantically on a dare to make her fall in love with him, and lose her virginity to him, before breaking her heart. We’ve got to say, luring someone into having sex with you through duplicity is a real bad way to start a relationship, and by the end of movie one, Tessa and Hardin are not together, though it is revealed to Tessa that Hardin did actually fall in love with her. Fans of Cruel Intentions will probably notice some major plot points taken directly from the 1999 classic, but hey, Cruel Intentions was a modernized adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, which itself was an adaptation of the play Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
The second film, After We Collided, opens with Tessa and Hardin still broken up. As you have probably figured out, the two decide to give it another go. They have lots of sex, it’s all very pretty, the relationship crashes and burns again. But, unlike in the first film, they get back together by the end of the second. Which leads us to movie number three, and the aforementioned synopsis. Those who have also read the book series will know where things are headed for this up-and-down couple, but for those who only watch the films, well, they can probably still figure it out. Now, as fun as these movies are to watch, and as pretty as the people in them are, if your relationship is that tumultuous, do yourself a favor and get out.
After We Fell is scheduled to be released on September 30, 2021.
