Film & TV

Hereafter

Rating: M

Running Time: 129 minutes

Release Date: 10 February 2010

Hereafter looks at the lives of three different individuals situated around the globe and how they each have been affected by death.  Marie Lelay (Cecile de France) a French journalist has a near death experience during a Tsunami whilst across the Atlantic, American George Lonegan (Matt Damon) communicates with dead people.  London schoolboy, Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren) is just searching to connect with the afterlife after his personal loss.  In their search for answers and meaning, their lives intersect and are changed forever.

This intersection of seemingly parallel stories has been done before as has the globalisation element; three people populating different parts of the world who as the world is flattening transcend the tyranny of distance are brought together.  These advances in technology are allowing us to make what once would have seemed the unlikeliest connection and impact on other lives.  In some respects it takes after Babel which was the first “globalisation-reality” film in illustrating that we are increasingly becoming one community at large and are actions cannot be isolated by boundaries.  Though this is not the main theme it serves to illustrate the common thread all of us has as human beings in terms of dealing with our mortality and our mix of cultural/religious/personal beliefs around this.  The central theme exploring the afterlife is a contentious area which director Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) treats deferentially.  He is also true to the secondary global theme with preserving the French language and offering English subtitles instead.  However it is slow moving in parts and the tone is uneven as it switches from high action/drama, particularly in the opening scenes, to the drudgery of everyday life which doesn’t work overall.  Screenplay by Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) is disappointing given his earlier highs as he fails to give enough depth to the characters so the care factor in their fate is just not there.

Matt Damon is good with what he is given and I am beginning to warm more to him as an actor especially after True Grit.  Cecile De France puts in a fine performance as do twins Frankie and George McLaren.  If you believe in the afterlife or have an interest in this area then you will find this film interesting otherwise it is an average film that offers nothing new except the amazing recreation and cinematography of the Tsunami disaster in the beginning sequence. 

3/5 stars

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