Dir : Clint Eastwood Cast : Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Jay Mohr, Bryce Dallas Howard,Frankie and George McLaren
Hereafter
U/A; Drama
Dir : Clint Eastwood
Cast : Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Jay Mohr, Bryce Dallas Howard,Frankie and George McLaren
Rating : **1/2
ADVERTISEMENT
WHAT'S IT ABOUT: Death touches the living in strange ways. No one knows that better than someone who's seen it from close quarters and lived to tell the tale. Ask French TV journalist Marie Lelay (De France) who goes under during the tsunami but finds herself saved by unknown locals. The near-death experience gets her thinking about the afterlife. Does it exist? What can one expect? The search for answers to her questions lead her to lose her cushy job, the man she loves (or thinks she does) and the posters of her plastered all over Paris. What she gains is an insight into a world few people attempt to understand. 
Then there's the psychic who threw it all away so he could live a normal life. George Lonegan (Damon) is incredibly good at communicating with the dead and acting as a medium for grieving relatives. Except he treats the ability to do so as a curse rather than a gift.u00a0 His elder brother, Billy (Mohr) seems to strongly disagree. He thinks his brother sees a closed door where he sees a window of great opportunity. Only George knows, when people get curious and go looking, there's no telling what you'll find.
Lastly, there's the London boy Marcus who lost his best friend, his twin brother Jason (both roles played by the McLaren brothers) in a freak accident. He tries looking for ways to get through to his dead bro but to no avail.
Marcus finds his answers with George, who finds someone to love in Marie, who finds in George a man who knows exactly what it is to experience what she does.
WHAT'S HOT: The film touches a raw nerve with a lot of people who have lost someone close, someone dear.There's so much we never asked them, there's so much we never told them. There's always that feeling that we'll never find closure until we "make contact" with "the other side". Eastwood tries ever so hard to find his emotional anchor but finds an unlikely bright spot with Bryce Dallace Howard. The rest of the cast is blissfully morose and sedate by comparison.
WHAT'S NOT: The film is punctuated with excessive doses of gloom-n-doom. Each time a new character is introduced, you experience a familiar pit in your stomach that leaves you with a queasy feeling. You just know it isn't going to end well. Point I'm trying to make is... tis may not be the season to be jolly, but it sure ain't the season to be miserable either. Then there's the predictable ending. You know they're kinda going to find closure. Or something close.
The film's festering sore in the story. You're never really told why despite his popularity with a certain demographic, George is never popular with the ladies. I mean, knowing secrets via the dead beats any card trick hands down. It's just plain curious that George gets stuck with all the curious lasses.
Or just plain convenient. Then there's Marcus looking up something on YouTube that throws up random and completely useless results. Obviously, he's looking for answers to all his questions. Shouldn't he have been looking up Wikipedia instead? Also, a third of the film is in French. If you're the sorry sod who has no/poor access to subtitles, you'll be cursing your way through the film. It's also pretty obvious that the McLaren lads can't act to save their lives.u00a0 And yeah, the tsunami scene at the start does nothing to make me go wow. How I wish it did!
WHAT TO DO?u00a0Pray this one doesn't bore you to death. You don't know what to expect in the real hereafter.In the reel one, now you thankfully do. Be grateful.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
