HEREAFTER (15)
D: Clint Eastwood
Warner Bros./Malpaso/Amblin (Clint Eastwood, Kathleen
Kennedy & Robert Lorenz)
US/France 2010
129 mins
Drama/Fantasy
W: Peter Morgan
DP: Tom Stern
Ed: Joel Cox & Gary Roach
Mus: Clint Eastwood
Matt Damon (George Lonegan), Cecile de France (Marie
Lelay), Bryce Dallas Howard (Melanie), Jay Mohr (Billy Lonegan), Thierry Neuvic (Didier)
Hereafter follows the paths of three strangers whose lives
have been touched by death in very different ways. A French journalist is a survivor of a tsunami on a South Pacific island. In London, a young man loses his twin brother in an automobile
accident and is desperate to re-establish contact with him, and in San Francisco, a psychic who feels his abilities are a curse holds the key to the others finding the hopes and prayers that
they desire. The three people all follow very different paths, but they all finally meet and find their own closures.
The supernatural is an unusual genre for director Clint
Eastwood to take on, and it shows. Aside from a breathtaking opening scene which recreates a tsunami with outstanding visual effects, the film becomes a tad wishy-washy and daubed in
pretentiousness. Far from Eastwood's best work.
6/10