Clint Eastwood’s films have generally dealt with the subject of death in one way or another. Movies like Unforgiven presented an eye-for-an-eye philosophy of death as the appropriate justice for killers. Mystic River was about the effects of a murder on the people left behind. Million Dollar Baby touched on the subject of Euthanasia. Gran Torino showed us a man facing his own mortality. Now, Eastwood gives us a look at death from the other side.
Clint Eastwood’s previous films have always been grounded in a grim reality. He’s never delved into sci-fi or horror before as a director. Eastwood is a master at capturing the intense emotions people deal with during very real crisis situations. Hereafter is a major departure from the director’s earlier oeuvre. Perhaps now that he’s reached 80, he’s become more contemplative about what survives beyond death than by what precedes it.
The film never gives a clear description of an afterlife, nor does it ever say for certain that there is a heaven or hell. The story seems to indicate that thoughts and memories still exist beyond the death of the body but we get no visual images, such as in films like Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones.
The story is split into three separate plots, all of which study how death and a belief in the afterlife alter the lives of unrelated people. One plot concerns former professional psychic George Lonegan (Matt Damon), who in years past had achieved a level of fame by helping people contact their diseased loved ones. George quit his vocation because “living constantly with death is no life at all.” He still retains his gift--which he calls “a curse”--but he hides it from the world, despite pleas from his brother Billy (Jay Mohr) to return to his glory days, so Billy can ride his coattails to success and wealth.
There is a touching subplot about George becoming attracted to a woman from his cooking class. Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard, who gives the best performance in the film) is a sweet, vulnerable girl who takes a liking to George but their blossoming relationship changes when she learns about his unique gifts.
The second plot revolves around French TV newswoman Marie LeLay (Cecile de France) who is a Tsunami survivor. She has a brief After-Death experience where she sees images of loved ones and gets a sense of peace. After being miraculously revived, she becomes obsessed with finding out what lurks beyond the veil of this mortal coil. It begins to affect her job and her relationship.
The final plotline follows young Marcus (George McLaren) who is traumatized after the sudden, tragic death of his twin brother Jason (Frankie McLaren). Since Marcus has no father and his mother has been sent to rehab for her alcoholism, Marcus is put into foster care. He wanders through the next year like a zombie, always wearing his late brother’s cap, and researching psychics on the net, hoping to find a way to communicate with Jason.
The three plots come together at the end in a highly improbable coincidence. The trick Eastwood faces here is to delver some sort of resolution to each of our three leading characters, without giving any concrete answers about the right or wrong of their beliefs in the afterlife. The story is more about the need for answers than what the answer actually is.
The movie adds in some tragic, real-life events, such as the 2004 Tsunami and the London bombings of the buses and trains. Events like these remind us how fragile our lives are and make some of us desperate to know that there may be a future beyond the grave. George, so tired of living with dead, represents the idea that while we’re here, our main goal should be to care for each other and forget about thoughts of death for as long as we can.
"Hereafter" opens October 22, 2010 and is rated PG13. Drama. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by Peter Morgan. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Cecil De France, Derek Jacobi, Jay Mohr, Matt Dallas.
