“Aftersun” (2022), a heart-wrenching coming-of-age drama written by the fantastic Scottish director, Charlotte Wells, has captured the heart of the internet. Wells explored a difficult theme in her film, having created the project about her experience with her own father. She shares her story through the eyes of Sophie (Frankie Corio), who sees her father as a brilliant, sometimes boring, young man who has taken her on holiday to Turkey.
Although the movie was not as successful as some would have liked it to be, it made an impact in European box offices with a gross profit of $2.4 million in the United Kingdom and $1.2 million in the Netherlands. (A big achievement for an original, R-rated indie film.)
Frankie Corio, who played Sophie, is a brilliantly talented young actress who is surely going to become a keystone personality in the indie film industry. Corio delivered the performance of a lifetime while playing Sophie.
“Funny story, I had almost no idea the film was supposed to be sad! Charlotte, the director, only let me read and know my scenes. None of Paul’s, she wanted it to be very natural and truly unaware!” replied Corio to a comment on TikTok.
Wells’ decision was one well made, as Corio achieved the sense of childlike innocence and obliviousness Wells was going for.
Throughout the movie, older Sophie seems troubled while watching the film she’d captured, as though it were illicit for her to reflect on the memories of her father. The constant flashes to the dreamlike sequence, where she sees her father, Callum (Paul Mescal), dancing in a nightclub is jarring. It provides a good contrast between the warm-colored nostalgia of the past and the dark, sweaty unknown of the present. Wells leaves us with a lasting message: There is no catharsis in memory, only the ability to let go.
