Ice cream truck.By John DeSando, "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee
"It's not a gift, it's a curse!" George (Matt Damon)
Clint Eastwood has been no stranger to death; many of his memorable productions like Unforgiven and Mystic River have dealt with murder and loss. His embarking on a film about the afterlife, Hereafter, therefore seemed logical until I saw the film, a flaccid triptych in the spirit of Crash about three people on different continents who have suffered death of a loved one, or nearly themselves, or psychically connect with those who have gone.
I've been to the White Lily Chapel, Spiritualist, in central Ohio and witnessed at a gathering some impressive connections to the dead, even in my life. But Eastwood has dulled the drama to the extent that whatever visions his characters have are soft focus apparitions standing around as if waiting for ice cream from a mobile vendor.
Do I want a return of the excessive prettification of Lovely Bones? NO! but some palpable conflict in the ranks, some imaginative rendering of the ghosts would be better than the amorphous visions coming from Eastwood's split-second cutaways to the afterlife. George's (Matt Damon) disclosures of their thoughts are predictable and unexceptional.
It's not so much that the connecting of the three stories toward the end is predictable; it's just that the exposition is so long winded until we get there. Eastwood is successful in underplaying the reactions to hearing the dead and seeing the after-death state, but somewhere there should be excitement about the discoveries. Even young London schoolboy Marcus, who has lost his brother and pursues George among other seers to reconnect with his dead brother, is as dull and monotone as to be distractingly detached.
One exception: the tsunami at the beginning, in which Marie (Cecile de France) has her near-death experience, is great CGI, a tribute to Eastwood's ability to be modern and technical when his real interest is in characters under stress (see Gran Torino to get that flavor). It would be easy to attribute this film to 80-year old Clint's interest in mortality, but the respectful attitude is to ask what you would do when executive producer Steven Spielberg suggests you are the perfect director for the film.
I would become immediately interested, 80 years old or not.
John DeSando co-hosts It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee for WCBE 90.5. The shows can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com