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FeedMovie Review: Hereafter
Films opening this week:
Hereafter - Maple Ridge; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Hollywood, Quaker Regals; Flix
Paranormal Activity 2 - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade; McKinley Mall Dipson; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Hollywood Regals; Flix; Transit Drive-In
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Amherst Dipson; Eastern Hills Dipson
Right before the Hereafter screening, my friend told me she had read that it was Clint Eastwood’s "French film." Once the end credits rolled, I realized there isn’t a more succinct description for it. This isn’t a spooky tale of a psychic speaking to the dead, nor is it a disaster film where God has become vengeful. In fact, Matt Damon's George Lonegan might not even be the lead character.
Damon is just one of three lost souls desperately trying to cope with death. The film begins with a tsunami leaving billions of dollars in damage and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. French television anchor Marie LeLay (Cécile De France) finds herself in the path of the tide, and lost to the weightless darkness. She also sees what happens next, before being pulled back to life by two good Samaritans giving CPR. What she has experienced is the prelude to a spiritual journey of faith.
Marie learns to see death not as a feared ending, but as a new chapter. But Damon's Lonegan sees it as a burden separating him from ever living a normal life. Where she looks to learn more, he only desires an escape. He doesn't want it to be the money-maker his brother (Jay Mohr) envisions, nor the trick Bryce Dallas Howard’s Melanie assumes it must be.
It is the third plot thread—these occur in an A-B-C format, always repeating in order—that shows how death can ravage one’s soul. Young Marcus is the son of a junkie mother that he and twin brother Jason (the two played by Frankie and George McLaren) have been caring for. But an automobile accident takes Jason away. Losing his brother makes Marcus heart-breakingly isolated, as McClaren expertly portrays.
This thoughtful film has emotional weight that piles higher and higher until an inevitable collision. Peter Morgan, screenwriter for The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, here speaks of the metaphysical, and of our need to face death. Hereafter is a film of introspection and emotion, unraveling in its own time without pandering to Hollywood conventions.
The general movie-going public—like my friend—may easily check out early from boredom or frustration. But I am thankful that Eastwood and Morgan have the clout to take their time and craft a work that is different—and fearless.
Hereafter 8/10
photography:
[1] MATT DAMON as George Lonegan and RICHARD KIND as Christos in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama "HEREAFTER," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
[2] CÉCILE de FRANCE as Marie Lelay in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama "HEREAFTER," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
