Aftermath: Love amidst the ashes

A young British couple, Rachael and Lewis (Keira Knightly & Jason Clarke), arrive in war torn Hamburg after World War II. The husband is a British army captain charged with rebuilding the city. They are to live in a spacious, gracious home owned by Stefan (Alexander Skarsgard) a wealthy German who's to be dispatched to a camp. But the kindhearted captain allows the German and his daughter to remain in their home in separate living quarters.

The contrived plot moves on to send the colonel out of town, leaving the beautiful wife and the handsome German to put their animosities aside.

What appears to be a typical love triangle, however, is anything but. There are five sides to this relationship, including Stefan's wife and Rachel's young son, both of whom died in bombing raids.


Despite the heavy-handed maneuvering, Aftermath is a decent flick that captures time and place more gracefully than the you-saw-it-coming-from-a-mile-away love story.