There is a lot of stuff out there about aging and approaching the inevitable. This little animated feature involves an old woman who sit in a chair. He daughter is seeing to her needs and apparently packing her few possessions. The woman drops in and out of reality, reminded of her younger days and her growing as a person. There are swirls of color and confrontations with fear, recognitions of shortcomings and missed opportunities. Ultimately, it is a look at life in all its imperfections.
11 Reviews
Reflections of life
Prismark1024 July 2019
Animated shorts have a tendency to be dominated by Disney/Pixar at awards seasons.
Late Afternoon is an Irish short. An elderly lady voiced by Fionnula Flanagan reminiscences through her life inspired by little moments such as dunking some biscuits into a cup of tea.
It looks like she might be moving home, a younger woman seems to be packing some possessions away.
As the old lady's memories progress she makes some important connections.
Slightly sentimental but sweet. There is a simplicity to the animation and the music.
Late Afternoon is an Irish short. An elderly lady voiced by Fionnula Flanagan reminiscences through her life inspired by little moments such as dunking some biscuits into a cup of tea.
It looks like she might be moving home, a younger woman seems to be packing some possessions away.
As the old lady's memories progress she makes some important connections.
Slightly sentimental but sweet. There is a simplicity to the animation and the music.
Swimming into the ocean of memories
arunayll27 March 2019
A tender, loving and absorbing film, which holds on to your attention until the very end. This animation hits the spot on every level and leaves you wondering about yourself as you follow the character swims into the ocean of memories and trying to grab onto one of them and explore it once more as she's putting puzzles together to arrive at anything, something or someone.
Beautiful
olivial-563155 March 2019
Gentle, a bit sentimental, but it works well
bob the moo9 March 2019
An elderly woman has her memories triggered by a biscuit and cup of tea on a sunny later afternoon. This little animation is quite gentle in the way it deals with dementia, and it does tend a bit towards the sentimental, however it works surprisingly well. We see a few scenes from the woman's childhood and adulthood play out, and then it ends where we suspected it would. The animation is smooth and easy on the eye, and along with the music it does produce this gentle/sentimental tone. Watching it, I was looking for it to have a bit more of an edge, but by the end I knew I was wrong and trusting the film was the better way. The ending is pretty obvious in content, but the way it is delivered is really well done and gave me an emotional impact even as I was feeling a bit cynical and smug for knowing the end ahead of time. A gentle little film but worth seeing.
Tearjerker! Loved it!
james-patrick-732-46346824 February 2019
I pray for those who rated this beautiful story low.
joshuaajones11 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I pray that they never have a loved one cursed with Alzheimer's. By their comments, I can only fathom that, at this point, they have not. Having your loved one not recognize you is a painful experience. My grandmother would shift in and out of our timeline mentally, thinking she was a young girl to imagining my grandfather coming home from the war to having that spark of recognition that spread across her face, when she realized who we were.
This story reminded me so much of those visits. It was heartfelt and satisfying.
This story reminded me so much of those visits. It was heartfelt and satisfying.
Too much in too little
Horst_In_Translation17 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"Late Afternoon" is an award-winning Irish animated short film from 2017 written and directed by experienced animator Louise Bagnall. Now in 2019, this one managed to score an Academy Award nomination, so it took quite a qhile for the film to make these huge waves. By the way, it runs for slightly under 10 minutes including credits and features a voice cast that includes not only Bagnall herself, but also Emmy-winning actress Fionnula Flanagan, who voices the main character. And she does a good job for sure. I also liked the music as well as the animation style most of the time. So there may nothing be truly outstanding about this film, but there are also very few weaknesses. So you may wonder why I give it only 2 stars out of 5 then. Well, the answer is simple that I was not convinced by the core component here: the story. We have an old woman sitting in her armchair and she gets a visit from her daughter. So far so good. But what happens afterward, does not feel real or right. The old lady while served a cup of tea by the daughter remembers her past, first as a young girl, then as a teenager, then as a young woman (falling in love) and eventually as a slightly older woman already with her own daughter when the latter was still very young. It felt very random to me I must say. How she would get all these memories out of nowhere. This certainly would have worked better with exclusive focus on one particular memory only and they could certainly have liked that one in the end to the daughter just like they did and I thought the ending was sweet, even if a bit happy for the sake of it. I don't know. Maybe, no probably, this is a film you will appreciate more the older you get, especially if you have own children, maybe also if you are a female rather than a male to make a connection with the old woman. I can only say I was not impressed by the story. It felt like nothing that could happen this way in real life to me. They very much tried to fit way too much into way too little time here and the result is a feeling of quantity over quality, even if there is no denying this movie has its strong moments. It probably won't win the Oscar and I will not be cheering for it. For me, at this point (yet to see one last nominee), it is tied for the spot of the weakest nominee together with Bao. Not recommended.
themes of a dying artform?
boblipton10 February 2019
Last year's Oscar-Nominated animated shorts show had me mildly concerned; one of the nominees was GARDEN PARTY, a CGI effort, in which a roving camera wanders around a house, looking at all the frogs. It might have been reality for all I could tell and that's what's disturbing. If animation is indistinguishable from reality, does it have any particular artistic value? Does it not simply reduce the category to a sub-category of special effects, a technical Oscar like glass painting or green-screen technician? William Demille used to teach a course on title writing and, yes, there are still titles used in the body of a movie, but there's no Oscar for Best Title Writing, just as color cinematography and black and white cinematography no longer have separate categories. Now they're simple choices made on the basis of taste and money.
It seems to me that unless animation tells stories that live action cannot, or tells them better, then it is a dying branch of movie-making, and let's not bother. It will appeal nostalgically to a smaller and smaller group of people, considering themes that appeal to the very old until some day some one will say "Why are we bothering?" and drag out the woolsack to make room for a comfortable chair for the Chancellor.
An elderly lady is sitting while a young woman packs the house's furnishings. As the lady sips tea, she remembers being a child at the beach, a young woman in love, and a young mother with her own child at the beach.
If animation is at risk of dying out as an art form because there is no story it can tell that cannot be told in a realistic fashion, then sure the themes it will adopt will be those that appeal to a shrinking, aging population. Such themes include fear of senility, aging out of your home and life.... in short the themes of this movie.
On the other hand, this offers the story in a pleasant impressionist manner. So, despite my fears, I liked it a lot.
It seems to me that unless animation tells stories that live action cannot, or tells them better, then it is a dying branch of movie-making, and let's not bother. It will appeal nostalgically to a smaller and smaller group of people, considering themes that appeal to the very old until some day some one will say "Why are we bothering?" and drag out the woolsack to make room for a comfortable chair for the Chancellor.
An elderly lady is sitting while a young woman packs the house's furnishings. As the lady sips tea, she remembers being a child at the beach, a young woman in love, and a young mother with her own child at the beach.
If animation is at risk of dying out as an art form because there is no story it can tell that cannot be told in a realistic fashion, then sure the themes it will adopt will be those that appeal to a shrinking, aging population. Such themes include fear of senility, aging out of your home and life.... in short the themes of this movie.
On the other hand, this offers the story in a pleasant impressionist manner. So, despite my fears, I liked it a lot.
What a mess
Aleta_Nook8 February 2020
It has some sweet moments but it took a while for me to wrap my head around the story. It's still a convoluted mess, though. Most of the memories are all over the place and some were even there for some cheap melodrama such as some random kids crying and other pointless things like venturing into unknowns such as caves and forests.
I understand the gist of the short and the whole fragmented memories that accompanies all of us but this is a story, it should follow a cohesive plot.
In conclusion, it should've been shorter.
I understand the gist of the short and the whole fragmented memories that accompanies all of us but this is a story, it should follow a cohesive plot.
In conclusion, it should've been shorter.
emotions
Kirpianuscus21 January 2019
It is a source of emotions. From the ages of the lead character to the fluidity of animation. Most important, it is a short film about yourself.The story of Emily front to a tea cup and a biscuit. And her long travel across herself. Sure, "Late Afternoon" could have many deffinitions. But important is its special status of key to yourself. The waves of emotions. And the pieces of beach, tea, biscuit becoming almost material. Like the final hug.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
