After Everything – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Summary

At the age of 23, both Elliot and Mia were unhappy. Their jobs were dead end and brought no satisfaction, Elliot was hooking up with people but never found the one, and Mia? Well, her roommates would push her to meet someone, have sex, and have fun, but she isn’t that type of girl. At the point we meet her, she has only slept with two people, since her sophomore year of college, compared to Elliot sleeping with over ten since freshman year of high school.

Yet, one day they meet while waiting on a train and thanks to Elliot being persistent, he wiggles his way into her life. Not in a stalker way, but just by making himself seem interesting enough to get to know. However, before they could really start to get to know each other, Elliot learns he has Ewing Sarcoma – a type of pelvic cancer. Something that he doesn’t tell his best friend and roommate Nico, nor his parents first. Instead, on his first date with Mia, she learns. Leading her to become his rock through that, chemo, telling his parents, and so much more.

Leading to how the movie gets its title. She is there with him through it all and when he gets better, things start to erode in their relationship. Leading to the question, after everything they’ve been through, is that it? Will they be over?

Collected Quote(s) or .Gifs

You’re my first love. I just don’t know if you’re my only love.
— Mia

Highlights

It’s The Type of Relationship You Could See Happening & Want To Heavily Invest In

With a lot of romance films, things come together too perfectly. It seems like the gods chose this very day, this very moment, and so it was meant to be. That isn’t the case here. Mia does come into the sandwich shop that Elliot works in, but he never felt compelled to talk to her till that one day. Even then, when he tried, she had headphones on and kind of accused him of stalking her. All which sounds very accurate to a dude approaching a girl, in real life, in the app dating age.

Yet, Elliot took it in stride, wasn’t pushy, and just gave his name and tried to get her info. That’s it. From there, she reciprocated and you get that feeling of, “It can’t be that easy?” Yet, you know it is. All it takes is someone saying something and a guy, or girl, giving that person a chance. Trusting them and being willing to be vulnerable.

I mean, the cancer thing may have been a bit much, likely would be for most people, but Mia is the kind of girl who seemingly is down for you as long as you don’t try to hurt her. Hence why, barely knowing the dude, she went with him, to a different state, in what might have been a small town, to meet Elliot’s parents and help him reveal his diagnosis. Making it where, while Mia is by no means a manic pixie dream girl, you feel the need to describe her as some kind of dream girl. Perhaps the one you can’t meet on an app but have to actually engage as normal people used to.

And once she does that, it is hard to not be hooked. For how she invests in that relationship, which is honestly one-sided for most of the movie, it gets you in your feelings. It makes it so you want these two to last forever, have kids, and maybe hear them renew their vows 50 years down the line – in a corny way, with Elliot talking about how, after everything, naming each thing, they are still together. That is how much in love you’ll be with this couple. Or rather, how much Mia will make you love this couple and Elliot is kind of just enjoying the spoils.

While Their Parents Had Money, Elliot and Mia Did Not

Both Mia and Elliot have roommates. Elliot has one, Nico, and Mia has two, who just watch documentaries all day and smoke weed. Don’t ask what they do for work since I don’t think it is said once. With that in mind, it adds onto the realness of this movie. We’re not watching some girl from Bushwick, gentrifying the neighborhood, falling for this tragic boy who lives in Manhattan in a huge loft with his best friend. No, these people got bills. Granted, I’m not sure how they pay them sometimes with the jobs they have, but baby steps.

The point is, rather than feature your usual well-off young adults, we see two people who may struggle financially but still find a way to make each other happy. Be it with just getting a drink and pizza, having conversations, supporting each other through hard times or, of course, having sex.

On The Fence

The Supporting Characters Are Just Kind of Around

Elliot and Mia have an all-consuming romance. The kind where friends fall to the waste side. Such is the case with Nico even though he and Elliot worked together, lived together, and might have been friends before moving to New York. Making it where Nico, and Mia’s roommates, we only get to know them for one or two things. We get just enough information to remember their names, and that’s it.

Which you’ll end up fine with since Mia and Elliot’s relationship is good enough to keep you engaged. So if Nico and the rest were interesting, that would just be buttercream frosting on top.

Mia Does A Lot Of The Heavy Lifting

Full disclosure: While Elliot may start the relationship, pretty much once the cancer hits, all eyes are on Mia. She is the one on WebMD, asking questions about different procedures and things like that. Mia is the one giving him time to recover and is being the most awesome girlfriend you can imagine. All the while, it isn’t that Elliot isn’t grateful but it is like, he hasn’t lived long enough to really appreciate a girl like Mia.

Overall

Positive (Worth Seeing) | Purchase Or Rent On (Amazon)

Admittedly this is a bit of a soft positive rating, if only because there isn’t anything huge to dislike here. Yes, after the initial meeting, Mia pretty much is the only one putting notable effort into the relationship. However, the arguments from that, and other things weren’t over the top. Also, when it comes to the usual, “Will they or won’t they?” the film handles it in such a way that may leave you frustrated, but not flipping a table. It gives you an ellipsis. Which, honestly just drives more that we aren’t seeing some ideal or fantasy romance. We got a taste of what two fictional people, living in reality, went through with each other. Giving us the highs, lows, and the awkwardness of dealing with what they did.

And it is that awkwardness that makes this worth seeing. You never feel as if After Everything is trying to sell you an idea. It just invited you into these two characters’ lives and tries to keep it as authentic as possible. No bells and whistles, grand gestures, any of that stuff we usually see in romance films. There is just this relationship you could walk by and not even know, and a film which seems to want to question what their story is and how does it end? If it does.

Spoiler-Full Summary and Movie Ending

At the age of 23, both Elliot and Mia were unhappy. Their jobs were dead end and brought no satisfaction, Elliot was hooking up but never found the one and Mia? Well, her roommates would push her to meet someone, have sex, have fun, but she isn’t that type of girl. At that point, she had only slept with about two people compared to Elliot being over 10 since freshman year of high school.

Yet, one day they meet while waiting on a train and thanks to Elliot being persistent, he wiggles his way into her life. Not in a stalker way, but just by making himself seem interesting enough to get to know. However, before they could really start to get to know each other, Elliot learns he has Ewing Sarcoma – a type of pelvic cancer. Something that he doesn’t tell his best friend and roommate Nico, nor his parents first. Instead, on his first date with Mia, she learns. Leading her to become his rock through that, chemo, telling his parents, and so much more.

Leading to how the movie gets its title. She is there with him through it all and when he gets better, things start to erode in their relationship. Leading to the question, after everything they’ve been through, is that it? Will they be over?

Answer is? Maybe. At the end of the movie Mia does ask for a divorce since, after a month of being separated, she is trying to date and isn’t sure what can become of her and Elliot. He might have cheated, he says they only got married because of the cancer, hinting he only got married because he thought he would die, so now they are in a weird place. However, with them laughing together like old times as the movie ends, they could very well reconcile.

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