After a string of underwhelming misfires, Clint Eastwood marks his return to success with his latest drama Hereafter. Keep in mind, this is a minor success at best and doesn’t reach the level of grandness that previous Eastwood features have. This is a film with surprising ambition and showcases Eastwood exploring new territory, excluding his continued use of over-sentimentality and manipulative drama.
Ham-fistedness is certainly a stamp of Eastwood’s past few films and this is no different. Right from the first 20 minutes it’s established not all the drama is genuine. Whenever Damon’s sympathetic and engaging psychic George Lonegan is onscreen, Matt Damon‘s subdued and lowkey performance never allows the film to slip into being overly melodramatic. Damon, one of the few that seems capable of doing so, keeps Eastwood in check. After a fairly shoddy CG tsunami disaster opening and the cringeworthy build-up to the death of a child, the film picks up.
Hereafter features sci-fi tropes, but isn’t sci-fi at all. Whenever Lonegan makes firm contact with people, a la The Dead Zone style, he’s capable of communicating with a close lost one of theirs. He used to make a business out of it, but then Lonegan realized he could never achieve a normal life through this and gave it up. He leaves behind his opportunist ways to live a quiet and recluse life, swearing that he’ll never communicate with those who’ve moved on again. His normal life continues to not fully work for him, especially after having his “gift” or “curse” ruining a potential relationship. That minor but effective subplot has Bryce Dallas Howard, who is excellent here, as the woman he’s interested in.
Lonegan is not the main character, no matter how hard the ads have been trying to put on. There’s two other prominent story lines. One follows a french journalist, Marie LeLay (Cécile De France), who reached the “hereafter” through a brief glimpse at death. The second, a young boy coping with the loss of his twin brother. Thematically, the connection for the three characters is obvious: letting go of death. Lonegan states that you’re not capable of living life with constantly thinking of the past and death, and that applies to all of them. (Spoiler Alert) This is reflected perfectly with Morgan and Eastwood starting off the film with a disaster and then ending the film on a quiet – perhaps a little hokey – somber moment. Once they let go of death, everything turns to peacefulness. It’s a happy Hollywood ending, the type you expect from Eastwood. (Spoiler Over)
Invictus took an aspiring story and made it into a dull one. Gran Torino didn’t hit the dramatic notes Eastwood seemed to be striving for. Changeling was a tedious 2 and a 1/2 hours of overwrought drama. Hereafter is superior to all three. Although Eastwood may have lost his old touch subtlety, the assistance of some unique ideas (courtesy of acclaimed screenwriter Peter Morgan) and a fantastic performance by Matt Damon, this veteran has churned out an admirable effort.