There are few things I regret as much as I do watching this movie.

Not as bad as I thought it was gonna. Still full of clichés though but that's to be expected[spoiler](obviously it had to include the whole innocent girl and bad guy trope)[/spoiler]. The main thing that gave me the impression that it was gonna be really bad was based on the things I've heard about the book but a lot of the really bad stuff that happened in the book was left out of the movie which is good.[spoiler] In the book he kept the used condom(!!) and a sheet with Tessa's vagina blood on it to prove to his friends that they had sex....so the movie could have been worse, there's also a bunch of manipulative and abusive shit in there and some dubious consent but thankfully that's not really in the movie.[/spoiler] Every single character in this movie annoyed me(mainly in the first half) except Selma Blair. Bless. Hardins backstory was severely underdeveloped. [spoiler]Tessa is deadass out here being a dumbass. If a man that you barely know asks you to go into the woods with him, YOU SAY NO!This is common sense y'all.(I know that's not technically what he said but like if a stranger asks you to come with him somewhere and he drives into the middle of the fucking woods...bitch, that is when you run.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Also, towards the end when the teacher gives Tessa the assignment Hardin turned in for that class...you're definitely not allowed to give someone another student's work, wtf.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Not to mention at the very end where Hardin basically compares them to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy....I have to laugh.[/spoiler] [spoiler]One more thing,this is not important in the slightest but I can't be the only one that thougth Noah was Tessa's brother in the beginning.[/spoiler] The acting is subpar at best but the script didn't give them much to work with so I'll let that slide. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a movie that was based on a Wattpad "book"(I use the term "book" loosely).

"Have you never been touched before?" asked lead character Hardin. And my answer is this. No Hardin, not like this. BEFORE your film, I had been been touched by other movies - films that broke my heart and penetrated my soul - Harold and Maude, Magnolia, The Cider House Rules, The Shawshank Redemption - but after seeing AFTER, I knew that no film had touched me in the same way before. No other film prodded me with bland and unengaging displays of emotion. No other film tapped me on the shoulder to remind me that a better romantic movie was waiting next door. No other film scratched my spine with manipulative mush. After seeing your film Hardin, my life was changed forever. So, while I have been touched by other movies; no other movies had touched me in the same way that yours did. And as such, I shall now place a restraining order on you and your blasted film.

I read After as a teen when it was a Harry Styles fanfiction and thought then that it was a revolutionary love story. As I watch it now, I firmly believe that it should've stayed a fanfiction and didn't get published or adapted. Though there are slight "enhancements" from paper to screen, that did barely anything to salvage the story. The book was definitely darker, more problematic, and more questionable. As for the movie, well, you can only do so much with crappy source material. Among the things that changed was making the cast more diverse, cropping out the instances where Hardin was abusive and manipulative towards Tessa, and changing the disturbing truth about the bet at the end. Judging the movie only, the script was terrible, the acting subpar, and the plot barely existent. It's honestly just a cliché filled with tropes and montages to indie music.

This movie is kind of a mess. I will spare everyone the long rant about the cheesy lines everyone seems to use in this movie. If the movie is purely in the category romance than ok I get it, but the drama in this movie is just lame and unneeded. [spoiler]For some reason the mother and (old) boyfriend of Tessa are so mad at her that they both forgive her in different scenes in all 3 minutes of the movie. I mean come on, they could have done so much more. Long story short the movie is only focussing on Tessa and Hardin, but could have been so much more[/spoiler] Rating: 3/10 would not recommend [spoiler]Also who thought the following scenario would be believable: "Him: My dad did very bad things and we had the trouble when I was younger. Her: Ok, let's have sex."[/spoiler]