HEREAFTER

“HEREAFTER” (Matt Damon & Cecile De France)

I’ve enjoyed Clint Eastwood more as a director than an actor. In other words, I like elderly Clint much more than Spaghetti Western Dirty Harry With An Orangutan Clint. His first match-up with Matt Damon was the rather disappointing ‘Invictus’, but ‘Mystic River’, ‘Gran Torino’ & ‘Million Dollar Baby’ are among may favorite films of the 21st century. I guess I’m setting this up because I have mixed feelings about ‘Hereafter’; parts of it I liked - parts of it I did not.
I don’t believe in a ‘hereafter’, but I do enjoy a good fantasy tale if woven intelligently. ‘Hereafter’ is woven intelligently but that doesn’t mean it works in every aspect.
Time for another set up; I don’t go to the movies to read. I read in bed to prep my mind before attempting to shut it off. So when a film forces me to read the dialogue, my brain thinks it’s sleepy-by time & starts to doze off.
Warning – 1/3rd of ‘Hereafter’ is in French & 1/3rd of it is in that ‘Cockney’ British language – they provided subtitles for the French third / none for the Cockney.
Now, to the actual film. It opens with a fairly impressive tsunami sequence which makes you think you’re about to see another '2012'. I remember thinking, “I never expected to see anything like this in a Clint Eastwood film”.
Marie Lelay (Cecile De France) a French woman on vacation with her boyfriend/boss is swept away by the catastrophic waves and drowns. So much for Marie’s segment.
George Lonnegan (Matt Damon) is a construction worker who looks a little too clean & polished to be an actual construction worker. That’s because George is trying to lead a normal life after spending too much of it contacting dead people... Think of George as Haley Joel Osment from the ‘Sixth Sense’ all grown up. 2 TV actors show up at George’s doorstep (Jay Mohr & Richard Kind) George’s brother, Billy (Mohr) begs him to give the guy who’s had to settle for a career in commercials a break by contacting his dead wife.
The third plot is set in England where young twin brothers Marcus & Jason (Frankie & George McLaren) ‘care’ for their drug addicted mother by trying to keep Child Protection Service workers from removing from the hubble that passes for the apartment they live in. Death pays a visit to the twins as well, thus setting up the trilogy of stories that take place simultaneously during ‘Hereafter’.
The part that didn’t capture my interest at all is the one with the most intriguing opening; after Marie’s near-death experience she decides to write a book about it that no one seems to be interested in. I don’t blame them, this segment is what causes the story to drag.
The one I liked the best throughout most of the film was George’s (Maybe due to the fact that it was the only one I could understand, thanks to the characters speaking in American) But no, it wasn’t just that - I was extremely impressed with the pairing of Damon with Bryce Dallas Howard – two actors that I never would have called ‘impressive’ prior to this. Adequate, competent, but not ‘great’. Their chemistry sparkled in every scene they were in and I had never seen Howard more relaxed and natural in any previous role.
George meets Melanie at cooking class where the teacher (‘The Sopranos’ Steve Shirripa) matches them as class partners. When Melanie turns to shake George’s hand, he pretends not to notice the move since touching someone’s hands is how George makes a connection to their dead loved ones. When Melanie discovers this, she thinks it would be ‘fun’ to have him ‘do’ her. You soon learn that Melanie was thinking George’s ‘reading’ would be a hoax; “You will meet the man of your dreams in cooking class...”
But the storyline that slowly becomes the most effective belongs to the English twins. It is downright heartbreaking to watch what Marcus goes through.
Despite a very hokey intertwining at the end, I still felt ‘over-all entertained’ by ‘Hereafter’ for some rather odd reasons – It didn’t follow the path I expected (which has been a staple of Eastwood’s better films) and at first I was disappointed, but soon realized that by not following the formula, Clint has created something unique. Even though he does take the route to hokum-ville to wrap the three tales together, But by the time he does that, I was thinking, “Well, I never expected Eastwood to do something as corny as that!”
So once again, he threw an unexpected twist at me by playing the time worn intersecting trilogy ploy...
In a very weak year, I have 'Hereafter' in my Top 5, but I don't expect it to stay there.