Review of Hereafter (2010) by Edith N — 03 Aug 2011

If You Don't Know What to Say, Maybe You Shouldn't Say Anything.

Okay, the tsunami effect was pretty impressive. Not impressive enough so that I'm over my indignation that it beat [i]Tron: Legacy[/i] to a Best Special Effects nomination, but impressive nonetheless. I don't really think it's necessary to the plot; I think it's a dramatic set piece intended to catch more attention to the movie. This bothers me, because I think Clint Eastwood is better than that. I think it might also be intended to symbolize the fact that events happen to us dramatically; things go from normal to completely different in the blink of an eye. However, I think we have too many of those moments in the movie, and I don't think they add up to much. This could well sum up the movie as a whole. There's a lot to it, but it doesn't ever really come together.

Marie Lelay (Cécile De France) is a successful French TV newscaster. She is on assignment in Thailand, about to go home, when she goes out to buy presents to take home to the children of her producer and lover, Didier (Thierry Neuvic). It is as she is out shopping that the Boxing Day tsunami strikes. She has a near-death experience, and it changes everything. Meanwhile, in London, Marcus (Frankie McLaren) and Jason (George McLaren) are living with their junkie mother, Jackie (Lyndsey Marshall). They are trying to keep the family together. Jason goes to the chemist's to get what the boys believe is proof that their mother is going to try to keep the family together, but Jason is essentially chased into traffic by a group of older boys. He is hit by a truck and dies. In San Francisco, George Lonagan (Matt Damon) is trying to start a new life after giving up his job as a psychic. Unlike the psychics Marcus goes after, George is the real thing. And he very much doesn't want to be.

I worry about the British social services system if this is what they really do for boys in the situation Marcus is in. There is no hint that he is in therapy, which he really, really needs. He's lost everything. And while his foster parents (Niamh Cusack and George Costigan) seem nice enough, they're clearly unprepared for the level of grief Marcus is experiencing. It's bad enough that his mother has given him up. It's even worse that the poor boy has lost his twin and dearest friend. He steals two hundred pounds from his foster parents to spend on psychics, and no one does anything about it. Heck, he ends up getting a ride home in a taxi with a strange man, and it doesn't occur to George that maybe he should come in and explain? I don't know that the care he'd be getting from his mother over that (apparently) year would be better, but at least she understands his grief.

There are several good movies in here, but Clint Eastwood, alas, didn't seem to make any of them. He does touch briefly on the religious angle of the debate, but from there, it might as well not have one. There is Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard), who seems to exist for the sole purpose of proving to us that George's ability to speak to spirits really is a curse. Which I'm perfectly willing to take his word for. Supposedly, Marie is ostracized from the world of respectable journalism for talking about the prospect of life after death, but on the other hand, she is able to get a book deal awfully fast. I'm frankly surprised that there are only two presses willing to publish her book, in fact, because life after death is an extremely popular topic. If all the movie is trying to say is that we don't ever talk about life after death, it needs to take a look around. We talk about it all the time. Maybe it should have said something else, any of the many things possible.

In the end, the film claims no certainty. Not even George, who speaks to the dead, knows what happens to you after you die. Clearly, there is something, because there is someone left for him to talk to. From how Jason describes it, it's probably a great deal of fun. Tantalizingly, we find that it is even possible for the dead to interact with our own world and possibly even predict the future. However, once mentioned, it's never touched on; the movie ends almost immediately after. I suppose the various characters will find their lives fulfilling after the credits roll, but there is no such hope for the audience. I think perhaps George quit doing readings because he had no answers to give the people who came to him, not really, and certainly Eastwood doesn't seem to have any, either.