After We Fell

Castille Landon’s third instalment keeps Tessa’s move to Seattle and Hardin’s hardening need for control in the same frame, running the cycle of fight, reconciliation and fresh family secret once more. How it was made shows up on screen. Once Landon took over the series she shot this film and its sequel as a single block in Sofia, Bulgaria, starting in September 2020, which is where the Bulgarian credit comes from. That came at a cost: five supporting roles were recast because the original actors could not travel to Bulgaria during the pandemic or were tied to other jobs; Chance Perdomo arrives as Landon, Rob Estes as Ken. Anyone coming straight from the previous film meets familiar characters wearing new faces. The source novel began as Anna Todd’s Wattpad fan fiction built around Harry Styles, with the characters made original for publication. It opened in Europe ahead of the United States, and the box office split shows where the audience sat: 2.1 million dollars at home against 19.5 million abroad. A good fit if you accept that the story is cut in the middle here and hands its ending to the next film. Not for anyone unwilling to watch each of Hardin’s outbursts excused by a revelation, and jealousy counted as proof of feeling.