After Ever Happy is the fourth, yes fourth movie in the After series (check out After (2019), After We Collided (2020), and After We Fell (2021)). It is even crazier when you think that there is a fifth movie in development as I write this. Look, like I said when I looked at After We Fell, if you liked the previous movies, you will probably like this. For me, this is the worst of the bunch so far, however, my wife likes this series so I had to watch it.
How to Download After Ever Happy (After 4)
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review to check the current availability.
The Movie Review
Once again, we have the same two lead characters in Hardin and Tessa. To be fair, the two actors, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Josephine Langford are decent enough and I am sure their chemistry is why people are into the series. These two have the most dramatic relationship in history and the whole thing just seems exhausting.
So, what is the plot for this fourth time around for these two? Well, once again there is some real drama going on. Hardin after finding out that the man he thought was his father was not who he thought he was, goes off the deep end. Hardin had this whole dark, moody, and brooding thing going on in the previous movies that people dug.
However, excuse my language, but in After Ever Happy, he is pretty much just an asshole! Even the sweet Tessa feels like she has been given a bit of a rougher edge this time around. Hardin is getting more and more out of control, but there is a revelation about something he has been working on for the last few years that will rock their relationship. Also, Tess has a real “shocker” in her life too.
To be fair, I think that the point of this movie was to show that these two people have grown. However, what would make most people grow apart, appears to make these two stronger and it seems that they are not so different after all. It feels like they want this to be an edgier, darker, and more “tense” kind of movie, but for me, it just did not work.
You would think after having to deal with these characters for four movies at this point I would have some kind of liking for Hardin and Tessa, but I do not. I think that After Ever Happy actually makes them quite unlikeable, especially in regards to the way Hardin develops in this movie and I use the term develop very loosely. I actually found the relationship and story about Nora and Robert more interesting than the drama with Hardin and Tessa.
This series of movies are based on popular books so if you have read the books then perhaps you get these movies way more than I do and I can appreciate that. However, with this movie and the previous one, After We Fell being handled by a different team behind the camera than the first two were, I actually think there is a real downgrade in terms of overall quality… and there was not exactly a lot of quality in those first two.
I am going to say that I feel After Ever Happy is the worst movie in the After saga. I cannot believe that the After saga is even a thing! Even if you were into the first three movies, I am sure that by this point this “love story” between Hardin and Tessa has to become a chore for you as well.
