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I would watch a Clint Eastwood film about grass growing. The man is just that good. Not every film of the now 31 film catalogue is a winner by any stretch, but whether an Oscar winner, a fan favourite, or a miss—at least inasmuch that Eastwood does miss—the man always tries to give you your money’s worth, and rarely does anyone argue he hasn’t.
Eastwood’s back catalogue of subject matters is as diverse as his career has been long. You never know what he’ll choose to explore next, and that, in part, is the appeal of his directorial efforts. Eastwood never does the same thing twice.
His latest foray centres on the eternal exploration of death: how it affects us, what lies beyond it, and how it shapes the lives of those around us, as well as ourselves. Hereafter, a story written by Peter Morgan (Brit writer known for his royal biopics), is a multi-storyline about three different people, who, in very distinct ways, have to make their peace with death and its effect in their lives.
The first tale is of a popular French journalist who dies in the 2004 Asian tsunami, and is revived with memories of what lies beyond. The second is the tale of two inseparable twins who endure a tragic existence in the UK until one of them is faced with the challenge of facing a worse obstacle alone. The third is the tale of a psychic who has forsaken his abilities in the hope of trying to build a normal life—one where he can form sustainable relationships and finally achieve a sense of belonging.
Each individual thread eventually intersects in the hope of achieving some kind of resolution for each character. It is an unsuccessful experiment. The trouble with intersecting narratives with many characters is the lack of time afforded the audience to connect with them. Instead of spending a couple of hours with one good story, we are left to make do with a third of that on three. The effect, by and large, is surprisingly one note and predictable unravelling of their stories, with unoriginal contrivances for scenes that have been done many times before but with more depth. Any one of those stories is a film within itself, and the finale, where the characters individual adventures come to bear on each other’s lives, is not strong enough a payoff to warrant the time asked of the audience.
If actors like Matt Damon and Cecile de France cannot manage to illicit some emotion with their threads in the allotted time, newcomers and bit-players have no chance, and it is those performers, despite their best efforts, that fall very flat here.
There are some spectacular scenes, and the movie opens with a bang, but it’s essentially all downhill from there. Like many, many films nowadays, it can be quite frustrating to watch professionals at the top of their game doing their all in every aspect of the film and falling dramatically short only due to the narrative’s construction.
You can’t fault any of the major players or the crew for the unsatisfying feeling upon leaving this story. It simply wasn’t going to work no matter who made it.
As far as placing this in the pantheon of Eastwood’s offerings Hereafter is way down the list. Not one of his greats.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic elements including disturbing disaster and accident images, and for brief strong language.
