Dem Reviews: Hereafter

As someone who loves movies, I am incredibly pleased that a talented director like Clint Eastwood is still making films into his 80’s. “Hereafter” is his latest, but not greatest. It begins with a stunning reenactment of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami in which one of the main characters, French Journalist Marie Lelay (Cécile De France), is nearly killed, but miraculously survives. Her story runs parallel with two others, which all seem destined to connect at some point.

The second storyline follows Matt Damon as a construction worker that possesses real powers to communicate with those who have passed on, and is desperately trying to escape from his past as a psychic. The third follows a young boy and his drug addict mother who are suddenly faced with a tragedy. Each of the characters are faced with varying degrees of sorrow over their difficult circumstances, and are tormented by what lies beyond death as they all try to cope. The film laboriously inter-cuts between each story, as they slowly (and I mean slowly) begin to converge.

The energy of this film is entirely sucked out by the pacing of these three stories. The film takes so long to get to the point, that I didn’t really care once it did. The plot seemed to be building to something much grander, so the ending was a bit of a let-down. And maybe, in all his spiritual wisdom, that is Eastwood’s point. But it wasn’t very satisfying as a viewer. Eastwood is so masterful at what he does, that you do certainly become engrossed in the film and the beautiful cinematography from Tom Stern. But when it’s all said and done, even one of the greats like Eastwood can’t carry the weight of Peter Morgan’s ho-hum script. I will admit I found parts of it very entertaining, but overall it was just an OK flick. Not bad, just OK. I’d say if you were already planning to see it, go see it. If you’re on the fence, maybe think twice.

“Hereafter” opens in theaters nationwide tomorrow (Friday).