Wes's Grade: C+
Thin, amusing zombie comedy "Life After Beth" lacks bite
The charming, quirky new zombie comedy "Life After Beth" is well-acted with a few laughs, but overall it lacks real bite and is only a serviceable entry in the zombie genre (and its sub genre, the zombie rom com). As a "Saturday Night Life" sketch it would perfect, it starts out well but it meanders too much in the last act. After his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza) unexpectedly dies, Zach (Dane DeHaan) is devastated. However, he gets a second chance at love after she suddenly rises from the dead. Directed and written by Jeff Baena in his feature film debut, the enjoyable, quirky dark comedy "Life After Beth" has a great cast, including a game, engaging Plaza from the TV show "Parks and Recreation," not to mention a bevy of funny actors as the parents: John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines and Paul Reiser, and the initial sections of the film, when the weird things start happening around town, are the most amusing, but ultimately it has nowhere to go and little to do. Plaza's (who is one of my favorite young comedic actresses) committed performance as the zombie girl holds the film together, and she and DeHaan make for a great pairing, but it doesn't deliver enough satisfaction, including fleshed out characters, a decent ending and coherent plotting than last year's "Warm Bodies," which did the zombie rom com thing much better. I would love to see the talented Plaza really break out to better roles, but she needs smarter, sharper material than the likable but slack "Life After Beth."
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