Review of Hereafter (2010) by Doctor S — 29 Jun 2012

Thoughtful, sensitive meditation on the possibility of what exists beyond this life. In typical Clint Eastwood fashion, the pace is slow and meticulous and his film ponders over the ultimate question about our mortality without trying to provide a definitive answer.

No matter what you believe, nobody - NO-BO-DY - knows what happens after we die, because the only people who have experienced it are dead, and they ain't talkin'. Religious groups have plenty of theories, whereas Hereafter takes a more secular approach. For anyone who assumes I give a low rating to a movie just for being slowly paced, here's your rebuttal. What matters are the story and the characters, and if those are working together, then the pace is immaterial.

Some terrific work from this cast. Matt Damon continues to impress with his versatility as a soft-spoken former psychic trying to lead a normal life. He shares some great scenes with Bryce Dallas Howard, whom I didn't even recognize, during and after an evening cooking class. Some serious old-film-school sensuousness burns between them! Cecile de France is another outstanding acting chameleon whose last role in an American production was Disney's Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan. Here she is a journalist whose star is on the rise, then during a terrifying near-death encounter with a tsunami she sees visions which affect her profoundly. What I love about Cecile is the way she can interpret a scene and give a genuine reaction that I wasn't expecting. In this movie, that moment occurs during dinner with her boyfriend & TV director and she uncovers a secret. A third storyline about twin bothers is also involving but ultimately a little unsatisfying once tied to the other two threads.

Some people will dismiss Hereafter as pure hokum with visions and psychics and whatnot, but for people who don't misguidedly think they have all the answers already (worth noting that Clint is just as big a skeptic as shown during a great sequence as the boy Marcus seeks a method to contact the dead), or got sucked into the paranormal psychology of The Sixth Sense ought be be engaged with these characters and their experiences.