It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010)

38% of critics liked it
(16 reviews)
35% of users liked it
(6,156 ratings)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Shaun of the Dead meet in this charming and fun comedy romp about an Indian mother taking her obsession with marriage into frighteningly funny territory. Mrs Sethi, a widow, can't bear the thought of her daughter being alone and unhappy. Okay, she's a little plump and… More My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Shaun of the Dead meet in this charming and fun comedy romp about an Indian mother taking her obsession with marriage into frighteningly funny territory. Mrs Sethi, a widow, can't bear the thought of her daughter being alone and unhappy. Okay, she's a little plump and opinionated...but she would make a great wife for some lucky man, if only she were given a chance. When Mrs Sethi can no longer stomach the rudeness of families who refuse her daughter, she takes matters into her own hands with the only way she knows... Suddenly a police hunt begins for a serial murderer who cooks a killer curry. Mrs Sethi doesn't feel too guilty until the spirits of her victims come back to haunt her as they are unable to be reincarnated until their murderer dies. Mrs Sethi has no problem killing herself - she'll get to see her dead husband again - but how can she go before her daughter is married? The spirits realize that helping Mrs Sethi's daughter find a suitable husband before the police catch her is their only chance for a wonderful afterlife. It's a big bloody wedding and a comic feast which takes the phrase 'I could murder a curry' to hysterical new heights.-- (C) UTV

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.
Directed By: Gurinder Chadha
Genres: Horror, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: Oct 8, 2010 Limited
Studio: UTV Communications

Critic Reviews

Tom Long, Detroit News
You don't see that many supernatural serial-killer romantic comedies.
Andy Webster, New York Times
It's a Wonderful Afterlife may be a busy trifle, but it has its good-natured charms and agreeable gross-outs.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Its comic premise seems too silly, and at times, too tedious, to hope for much cross-cultural appeal, despite a fine, committed cast.
Justin Chang, Variety
Broad enough to drive a truckload of samosas through, yet achieving the miracle of genuine silliness only through Sally Hawkins' turn as a daffy psychic, this gluttonous ghost story should appeal to Chadha's loyal customers.
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
Chadha and her team, with their TV-sitcom color palette and quick comic pacing, clearly aren't shooting for plausibility, and audiences in search of a few easy laughs won't be disappointed.
Mike Edwards, What Culture
I found myself laughing more at badly composed scenes, lame make-up, and poor performances than at the humour.
Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine
A refreshingly spry romantic comedy that never loses sight of the fact that levity and love, even against the darkest and most unlikely of backdrops, always prevail.
Diego Costa, Slant Magazine
A magical realist comedy about the idealization of state-sanctioned heterosexual coupledom.
Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
The feature doesn’t strive hard enough to remain delightfully insane. Instead, Chadha would rather play with broken hearts than entrails. A shame.
Nick Pinkerton, L.A. Weekly
Every gag is smothered by the prevailing tone of labored zaniness and generic, plucky "mischief music" alerting discerning viewers to abandon all hope of laughter.
Matt Glasby, Flicks.co.nz
This stodgy supernatural farce is riven with insoluble problems.
Damon Wise, Empire Magazine
With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.
Edward Porter, Times [UK]
These spirits are just gory enough to be out of place in a film that is otherwise designed for fans of bland, creakingly old-fashioned humour.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
A train wreck romcom.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
This film is so scattershot that it's more exhausting than endearing.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Disappointing comedy that fails to find the right tone and is let down by a messy script and a lack of decent laughs, though it does have at least one great moment.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
All the potential for drama and comedy is sacrificed to this totteringly high concept.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Gordon A

Harmless fluff which makes little sense and is even less believable but has the ever wonderful Sally Hawkins to light up her scenes, especially a fun 'Carrie' spoof.