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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Hereafter (Film)

by Erin Free | February 08, 2011 10:17 | Edited February 08, 2011 10:24

An unusual but absolutely absorbing work which bravely tackles the big questions with thoughtfulness and real emotion.

It's now a well versed fact that Clint Eastwood has defied the truism that a filmmaker's work dilutes and weakens as they get older. Where even directors as great as Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock failed, this towering icon of American cinema has not let age weary him, turning out films in his seventies (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby) every bit the equal of those he made in his forties (Play Misty For Me, The Outlaw Josey Wales).

 

Now, at age eighty, Eastwood is not only continuing to turn out fine work, but is also experimenting with genre, directing his first film with otherworldly or fantastical elements since 1985's ambiguously mystical western Pale Rider. Like that film, however, the deeply moving Hereafter remains subtle and thoughtful, whereas in the hands of most directors, it would likely become a far more florid and potentially melodramatic affair. Stylistically, Eastwood never speaks in a raised voice when a whisper will do, and Hereafter sensibly grounds its decidedly out-there concepts in real, honest emotion. 

 

From a literate, complex script by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United) - which has the weighty feel of an adaptation of a novel, despite it being an original screenplay - Eastwood tells a measured tale of death and what comes after it through the eyes of three disparate characters. George Lonegan (a typically fine Matt Damon, who is currently in the middle of an on-screen purple patch after his great work in True Grit) is a blue collar worker trying to put his past as a popular psychic medium behind him. Marie Lelay (Cecile De France) is a hardnosed French journalist who experiences a massive life shift when she dies - but is revived - after being caught up in a destructive tsunami while on vacation. Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren) is a London schoolboy from a hardscrabble home whose twin brother, Jason (Frankie/George McLaren), is killed in a tragic accident. Though in different parts of the world, George, Marie and Marcus are united through death, and though they don't know it, they're all walking a similar path.

 

Hereafter is a highly unusual but utterly effective film. It doesn't use concepts such as "the afterlife", and characters who work as psychics, as the basis for a supernatural thriller, a comedy, nor a tawdry horror film. This is a serious, reflective drama, and as such, will probably be an instant turn-off to sceptics who will likely believe that such topics have no right to be explored with such gravity. Well, it's their loss, because Hereafter is richly moving from beginning to end.

 

One stunningly performed scene - in which an encounter between George Lonegan and potential sweetheart Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard) powerfully shows why he no longer wants to trade on his psychic abilities - is amongst the most sensitive and heartbreaking that Eastwood has ever filmed. It's a fine example of why the film works so well: as well as boldly and bravely tackling big questions about death, faith and connection, Hereafter is principally a story of people worth caring about. And lately, that has become Clint Eastwood's specialty. Let's hope that he keeps directing until he's 100.