Cheap Before and After (Video) (Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Edward Furlong) (Barbet Schroeder) Price

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Customer Reviews of Before and After

Finally, a "real" suspense with surpurb acting performances!
Despite the ignorance of this film, BEFORE AND AFTER is a truly intense and realistic suspense and drama. The acting is absolutely flawless by the entire cast, especially: Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Edward Furlong, and Julia Weldon. This story is about a regular, normal, every-day Massachusetts family who are Jewish. They are a very respected family in their town and almost everybody knows them. But that all changes when the son, Jacob Ryan (Edward Furlong) is accused of murdering his girlfriend and then suddenly disappearing right afterwards. His family are despartely trying to find him. Finally, he is found - in jail. He is brought home, but nothing seems the same for his family after that. Pretty soon, the entire town knows about the incident and all believe Ryan killed his girlfriend. His father, Ben Ryan (Liam Neeson), will do anything to cover-up any evidence that leads to Jacob's case. But his wife, Carolyn Ryan (Meryl Streep) and daughter, Judith Ryan (Julia Weldon), want to tell the truth even though they know what will happen to Jacob. They feel it's the right thing, since they all know the real truth. BEFORE AND AFTER is the kind of film that will make you grip the bottom of your seat until your knuckles turn as white as a ghost. It's non-stop heart pounding action. And the acting performances are just incredible. It will make you feel bad for Jacob and hope the best for him. The movie is just so realistic you forget that it's a movie and feel like you're part of it. Go and see BEFORE AND AFTER. One of the best movies of the decade!

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Toothless story
The great shame of this movie is that it veered so terribly from the premise of the novel.

Brown's novel was so gripping and emotionally difficult precisely because Jacob did murder his girlfriend in cold blood. We struggle with the family as they come to grips with this hard truth: a seemingly "normal" family can indeed produce a dysfunctional, disturbed child and educated, thoughtful parents are often powerless to understand why. All of the dramatic power came from the adults struggling to figure out what to do with a son they don't recognize, and a younger sister knowing very well who her brother is but unable to share that information because the adults are interested in hearing it.

The movie pulled the teeth from this story when it gave us the eleventh-hour confession of Jacob's crime as *an accident*. Good grief. The movie, which wasn't very good to start with, then collapsed into unbelievable, sentimental pap.

My sympathies are with the author, who must have been appalled.

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HOLLOW CHILD
This could have been a riveting, thought-provoking film IF ONLY we understood why Edward Furlong's character was so troubled. There are no real indications of dysnfunctionality, only with the mention of the boy's fight with father Liam Neeson on the day the murder occurred. Also, the resolution is anticlimactic, with Julia Weldon's voiceover narration not adequately telling us exactly how the verdict affected the family.
Meryl Streep does a fine job as always, although Carolyn sometimes seem vacuous in her understanding of what her son has done; Liam Neeson overdoes his portrayal, yet has his moments, too; Edward Furlong does nothing to evoke sympathy in his wooden, James Dean like performance; Julia Weldon is very good in the role of the narrator/sister; Alfred Molina also does a great job in his role as the no nonsense lawyer.
Truth, is it important? Should one lie to protect a loved one? The movie never lets us know who to root for...it works mainly because of the beautiful setting and Meryl's presence is always worth watching.