Film Review: Hereafter

Hereafter. Rated M (mature themes and infrequent coarse language). 129 minutes. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay by Peter Morgan.

Death, and what, if anything, comes after it, has been an endless source of material for some unforgettable films – Passengers (2008), The Others (2001), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Ghost (1990), to name just four.

In Eastwood’s (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Changeling, Grand Torino) contemplative drama from Morgan’s (Frost/Nixon, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) intricate screenplay, we have a beautifully-crafted, lilting ode to lost souls – each of whom have their lives changed forever by their proximity to death.

When French television journalist ‘Marie’ (Cécile de France) survives a tsunami, her near-death experience challenges everything she ever imagined her life would be. In San Francisco, ‘George Lonegan’ (Matt Damon) is a recently-retired psychic, desperate to create a life for himself other than the one he has guiding others through their relationships with the dead. In London, young twins ‘Marcus’ and ‘Jason’ (Frankie and George McLaren) are caring for their heroin-addicted mother until Fate intervenes, with tragic results.

Resisting the reality-warping tendencies of some films in the ‘afterlife’ genre, Hereafter is a consummate piece of cinematic story-telling for people who like their movies slow, richly-layered and, ultimately, incredibly moving. 80-year-old Eastwood is at the peak of his considerable powers as a director – and like Peter Jackson did in similar territory with the extraordinary The Lovely Bones (2009) – brings a skilfully-assured, craftsman’s hands to the proceedings.

Damon is excellent as the frustrated ‘George’, while the McLaren boys are wonderful as the young twins – bringing rare and unpretentious emotional clout to their scenes. The scene where Marcus waits patiently for hours outside George’s London hotel proceeded to undo me completely.

Even though the Tsunami sequence is magnificently rendered and entirely worthy of its Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, Hereafter quickly moves on to become an utterly compelling and richly rewarding film about our notions of immortality – and is guaranteed to have you thinking about life, death and everything in-between for hours afterwards.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.