"Hereafter" is the latest film from the Hollywood legend, Clint Eastwood. This time he tries his hand at a supernatural drama. Peter Morgan ("The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon") wrote it and the cast includes the likes of Matt Damon, Cecile de France, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
The primary theme throughout the film is the afterlife. Eastwood and Morgan explore various possibilities, but don't exactly get it right...which I wasn't expecting. One should not go to a Clint Eastwood film for theological truths. "Hereafter" consists of three different people, with different stories, all involving the afterlife. All three stories are happening in different parts of the world, in the same period of time, eventually leading to them all somehow meeting at a book convention in France...yes....more on this later. Matt Damon is George Lonegan, a psychic in America. He has the ability to communicate with the dead, but is trying to leave that part of his life behind, because he believes it to be a curse. However, this becomes impossible when all sorts of people want him to contact dead relatives for them. This includes Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard), whom he meets in a night cooking class and at first thinks there may be a chance at a relationship with her. Cecile de France is Marie Lelay, a French television journalist who survives a tsunami and glimpses death. The third person is a young English boy named Marcus who's twin brother is killed by a truck.
The cast, overall is extraordinarily good. Matt Damon, once again proves what a capable actor he really is, no matter what genre one tries to fit him into. He has great screen presence as the lead character, who indirectly has a link with the other major players in the film. I'm glad Clint Eastwood decided to bring him back, after working together on last years "Invictus". I had no idea who Cecile de France was before I saw this movie. My knowledge of French actresses is non-existant. However, she is a talented actress who was able to believably show the aftermath of such a disaster, as a tsunami and trying to move on with her life. The fact that she looks perfectly fine mere scenes after she's practically dead, just requires some suspension of disbelief. The boy who plays Marcus, is literally a no name kid, who will probably never act again after this...He's already met Clint Eastwood, so anything else would just be a let down anyway. He is extremely believable as a young child dealing with the loss of a brother. Good thing Eastwood went with a complete unknown. One more thing to comment on, regarding the actors: Bryce Dallas Howard. I love her father, Ron Howard, with every fiber of my being, but I just don't think she is a very good actress. She just doesn't feel natural many times. And she really needs to go to the Sally Field School of Fake Crying, because in "Hereafter," Howard came dangerously close to laughing at one point I'm pretty sure. 
As a rule I think computer generated special effects are the spawn of Satan, unless of course we are talking about "Jurassic Park". However, I was quite impressed with what was done in "Hereafter." The beginning of the film includes a massive tsunami in Thailand. Obviously this would have been impossible to do without the use of computers, but the end result was phenomonal. It did not look fake at all, at least to my untrained eye. Nothing screamed "CGI," like what unfortunately happens, many, many times in life. The disaster immediately sucks you into "Hereafter" and right from the start, Marie is introduced.
I enjoyed how the movie moved back and forth between the the different characters. This was a successful plot device that was used instead of just having blocks with the same character. It makes things more interesting to watch. Also, I enjoyed seeing how a common theme effected a few different people, from different countries and under different circumstances. All three of them meeting in France is extraordinarily far fetched...but then again so is Matt Damon playing a psyhic...so one has to cope with these things in order to enjoy the film, as Mr. Eastwood intended.
Clint Eastwood is not only a very talented director and producer, but he also writes the music for his films, which greatly impresses me. The score overall was rather slow and not overpowerly, but given that this was an emotional drama, anything more would have been innapropriate. Also, be prepared to experience deja-vu during the end credits. The music is very reminscent of "Gran Torino."
One more thing, more of a disclaimer. There is a lot of French spoken in this film. I personally liked that they had this, because if I'm watching a scene in a film taking place, and filmed in France I do not expect them to speak English. True, realism is not a priority in "Hereafter," but French being spoken added to it. Luckily there were subtitles, so I wasn't completely lost. This however, may cause some people to run to the hills.
Clint Eastwood is 80 years old and has been working in Hollywood in some fashion for 55 years, directing for 39 of those years. With that being said, he is still sharp as a tack and literally cranking out movies rapid fire. It impresses me what he is able to do at that age. With "Hereafter" he directly a well made and well acted movie. It's a little long, but my ADD actually didn't kick in. So anyway...if you're like me and find it incredibly hard to resist a movie that includes Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon's names on the poster, then check out "Hereafter." If you can resist those to wonderful people, then I don't know what to say, it's just very un-American. 3 out of 4 stars
-Joseph Sbrilli
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