It's a Wonderful Afterlife

A kind of Ealing Comedy throwback that is arguably her best film since Beckham.

May be a busy trifle, but it has its good-natured charms and agreeable gross-outs.

A feel-good flick about a serial killer who just wants what's best for her daughter. Broad and not too spicy, the London-set Indian rom-com is a crowd-pleaser.

With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.

While her latest, It's a Wonderful Afterlife, is affectionate and energetic, its comic premise seems too silly, and at times, too tedious, to hope for much cross-cultural appeal, despite a fine, committed cast.

Every gag is smothered by the prevailing tone of labored zaniness and generic, plucky "mischief music" alerting discerning viewers to abandon all hope of laughter.

It's a Wonderful Afterlife is a movie to make Frank Capra roll over in his grave from indigestion.