Is there life after life?

Film review: Hereafter

MANILA, Philippines - I love watching Clint Eastwood and the films he makes. I see him as a man so enamored of the human experience that he cannot help but explore, dissect and best of all, show us, all its nooks and crannies. And how we love what he does. Do you know anybody who never enjoyed a Dirty Harry movie or marveled at the depth of his emotions in Million Dollar Baby. I like him even more as a movie director. The Changeling, Gran Torino, Mystic River, Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil, etc. There is a tender, contemplative quality to his films that I find absorbing. His images are often dead sure and he is able to project dark undercurrents to even the brightest of scenes.

Eastwood is now 80 years old and has been in the movie business for a long time. The past three generations have literally seen him grow from cowboy star, Rawhide on TV, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly in the movies to great director, Unforgiven. He has already done a lot of exploring. Then just when you think he might have to do another Western or crime drama, or worse, retire, for lack of anything new to do, he goes into something he has not done before like Hereafter from a screenplay by Peter Morgan and starring Matt Damon.

No Hereafter is not his take on the bucket list. You know the sort of film where an old man is faced with the inevitable and must make the most of his remaining days on earth. Hereafter is Eastwood’s investigation into life after death. Is there one? The film asks. Is death the end? Does life here translate into something hopefully better elsewhere? And if it does, is there some way for us living humans to find some proof of it?

There are three diverse stories in Hereafter but thanks to Morgan of The Queen, The Other Boleyn Girl and Frost/Nixon and to Eastwood’s treatment these eventually come together. There is Matt Damon in San Francisco as George who knows there is a hereafter and has the means to make contact with it. He touches the living and receives messages from the dead. Cecile de France is Marie, a TV journalist in Paris, who “died” in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami but miraculously came back to life. She is forever changed by the near death experience. Then there are twins George and Frankie McLaren as twins Jason and Marcus. Jason was killed in an accident while on an errand that Marcus was supposed to do. The so affected Marcus, that he is now on a quest to get in touch with his brother in the afterlife.

 The thing that these three people have in common is their belief in the hereafter. Marie’s is the strongest because she has seen the light during those moments when she was “dead.” Marcus wants the hereafter to be real because he believes that only by once more meeting his brother can he assuage his guilt and get back his life. George not merely believes, he knows there is an afterlife. But he sees his gift as a curse and has tuned this out of his existence by taking on menial jobs and lulling himself to restless sleep by listening to audios of the works of Charles Dickens.

 Hereafter is the sort of story that is difficult to translate into film. It meanders by today’s standards. There are really no villains to fight. Just minor irritants like Jay Mohr as George’s brother who thinks he should be making big money as a psychic or Marie’s publisher thumbing his nose at her after life experience. The characters just live from day to day with their visions of the after life over their heads. Worse it does not build up into an exciting climax. But what Eastwood does with this material is totally remarkable and he did it by breaking every rule.

He set a very slow, deliberate pace to the action. He lingers on minute details. He offers no explanations but instead cast more doubts on possible answers. He cares not that his movie is turning out to be speculative. There are not even ghosts or spirits or some apparition to jazz up some scenes. Just a shadowy form or two here and there. But Eastwood, the genius that he is, still holds the audience enthralled. Hereafter with its gorgeous images and heavenly music feels like a relaxing walk, an essay of beautiful prose.

Eastwood elicits superb performances from his cast. Damon is always a joy to watch and it is nice to see him unhurried for a change. De France cuts quite a presence and should be seen more often and Richard Kind is so moving as a man who so loves his departed wife. Bryce Dallas Howard as George’s night school classmate jars things a bit. But then she might be Eastwood’s way of saying that this is what happens to people who live with no thought of the Hereafter.