Hereafter [2010 Movie Review]

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Beautiful and fragile Ce’cile De France as Marie asks her lover Didier (Thierry Neuvic), “What do you think happens when we die?” Marie was resuscitated back to life after drowning in the deadly tsunami in Thailand in 2005. At one time or another we have all wondered this. Director Clint Eastwood thoughtfully journeys into this eternal inquiry. “Hereafter” is not Clint’s best movie—neither a “Million Dollar Baby” nor a “Mystic River”. Eastwood and writer Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) follow three converging story threads in life affirming catharsis. This is Eastwood’s most ambitious movie in terms of theme, and visual CGI effects. His simple narrative style steadies “Hereafter” as he explores the “undiscovered country”. He evokes powerful performances from Matt Damon and Ce’cile De France to make his story personal. Eastwood, now 80, perhaps is embracing mortality and legacy.

Ironically, Didier answers Marie that someone would have written about life after death by now. The obvious paradox: How would you write about death, when you’re dead? Don’t know whether this is clumsiness on Morgan’s part or whimsical humor. In “Hereafter” everything comes full circle. Even in the faith conversation and context, we may never really know what happens in the Hereafter. Eloquently, “Hereafter” celebrates the power of being present in the here and now. After all, now is all we really have.

The “Hereafter” converges upon three seemingly orthogonal story threads. Matt Damon is George Lonegan, who can communicate with the dead and their surviving loved ones. George gained celebrity as an internet psychic. However, he forsakes this for the simple life of a longshoreman. His brother Billy (solid Jay Mohr) implores George that he has a gift. He tells Billy, “It’s not a gift… It’s a curse.” George meets a lovely and possible romantic interest in Melanie (charmingly vulnerable Bryce Dallas Howard) in his cooking class. Melanie discovers George secret past. She asks George to help her complete her own dark secret. For Melanie uncovering what is or was, still requires her to complete the past. Howard is amazing in secondary role. Damon is powerful as the tortured soul, in search of his true purpose. Damon’s humanity grounds “Hereafter”.

George’s path intersects with two other lives. Marie (De France) is a French TV magazine host. After returning literally to life, she desperately seeks to find the answers to the visions she had when she was in the afterlife. Determined she begins authoring a book about the Hereafter. Her research draws her to Dr. Rousseau (elegant Marthe Keller), who recorded accounts of her elderly patients. This narrative exercise seems forced legitimacy on Morgan’s part. More poignant is the storyline of twin brothers Marcus and Jason (Frank and George McLauren). In London, Marcus and Jason protect their heroine junkie mother Jackie (tragically brittle Lyndsey Marshall) from child services. Jason dies in a tragic car accident. Marcus survives all alone, and incomplete. Desperately Marcus seeks to reunite with his brother; he researches George as the key.

As paths collide, the inquiry into the “Hereafter” deepens, Eastwood transforms his story into the possibility of love. Eastwood effectively leverages this with Marcus and Jason’s story—Frank and George McLauren display surprising authenticity. Their story punctuates the inconsolable loss, and the suffering we all feel when the ones we love are no longer. At the story arc, George (Damon) tells Marcus that if he feels that he is alone, “You’re not.” In catharsis, the possibility of love arises in the here and now in “Hereafter”. Perhaps, that is what Eastwood is reconciling. There may be no definitive answer to the Hereafter. What we really all have is in the here and now. We need to be present to that; celebrate life, and what makes it worth living.

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