LIHU‘E — The vulnerability within all of us, the fragility of life and the hope that death is more than an eternal void are the themes tackled by Director Clint Eastwood in “Hereafter.” Not for the fainthearted and in keeping
LIHU‘E — The vulnerability within all of us, the fragility of life and the hope that death is more than an eternal void are the themes tackled by Director Clint Eastwood in “Hereafter.”
Not for the fainthearted and in keeping with the heavier content of his other movies, such as “Million Dollar Baby” and “Mystic River,” “Hereafter” does more than dabble with the idea of what happens when we die. Using subsequent narratives in France, the U.S. and England, three separate lives are threaded together into one fateful purpose.
Amazingly, however, “Hereafter” does avoid the existence-of-God argument, and presents instead an idea that death is a consciousness, weightlessness and spiritual ubiquitousness that allows us to watch those we love on earth while exploring a different dimension simultaneously.
From its opening scene, death looms. The audience is immediately clued into the idea that a prescient disaster is about to strike, as massive amounts of water recede back into the ocean and the drawback of a coming tsunami begins.
Moments later, we see French tourist and journalist Marie LeLay (Cécile De France) perusing gifts in a street market when roofs begin exploding, trees are toppled and cars and other debris are uplifted into a massive, mobile, watery grave.
As she clings to a tree limb and someone offers a hand to help lift her out of the water, a floating truck crushes her and she sinks placidly downward.
It’s here that Marie experiences a life-changing event that starts a chain of other events connecting her with the other two characters in different countries: death.
(Spoiler alert) Though she is later revived, her life is forever changed, and continuing life in France as though it were the same proves to be impossible.
Across the channel, two young, British twin boys, Marcus and Jason (Frankie and George McLaren) are posing for a portrait as a surprise gift for their single mother, a well-intentioned but destructive addict who wouldn’t be able to keep it together were it not for the help of her children.
The twins, sweet and endearing, give off a devastatingly vulnerable vibe that proves to be prophetic for one of them, who is bullied into the street and then hit fatally by a car.
As is the nature of twins and their sense of closeness, the surviving brother is nearly destroyed by losing his brother in the accident, and goes on a near-year search to find a way to contact him in the afterlife.
Enter George Lonegan, (Matt Damon) a retired psychic who has sworn never to return to the cursed world of doing “readings,” but is convinced to do so by a persistent Marcus, who stands outside his hotel window for hours in the cold until George takes his case.
This is the pinnacle moment, as all throughout the film it’s what the audience has been hoping for: A chance to see an end to the anguish on that little face, and some justice following the cruelty this young boy didn’t deserve.
Arguably providing the best two performances of the movie, this psychic-reading scene involving George and Marcus is incredibly poignant. The audience finally gets to hear what has been haunting Marcus’s thoughts since his brother’s untimely death.
Heartbreaking, we learn that just as we suspected, it was his brother who knocked the baseball cap off his head and prevented him from boarding a subway that was about to explode; we also learn that his deceased brother is just fine, and confirm that the one who is suffering is the twin who has to make it in this cruel world without his best friend.
Though the reading doesn’t appear to ameliorate the anguished look on Marcus’s little face, it does offer a glimpse of hope that he may one day be OK.
It’s glimmers of hope such as these throughout the movie that make the sadness of “Hereafter” tolerable, as there isn’t much levity throughout.
Overall, “Hereafter” is a heavy movie that makes for an interesting après-movie conversation about what most of us fear most: not death itself, but rather living after losing those we love.