and Invictus
. Both films seemed weirdly out of his wheelhouse, but nothing like Hereafter does. A contemplative, spiritual examination of what we experience after we die, Hereafter is almost guaranteed to be polarizing for most folks. Those people can argue all they want about it, but a tired script, lackadaisical focus, and disinterested performances have me ready to take a nap.Hereafter starts off with a rush. A massive tsunami crashes a resort getaway, killing hundreds of thousands of people instantly. Marie(Cecile De France), a journalist from France is caught in the tidal wave's path and struggles to survive, until ultimately suffering a crushing, fatal blow to the head. She awakens a few minutes later, but during her time on the other side she experiences foggy images of those she knew. Are they waiting for her on the other side?
George Lonegan(Matt Damon) is the man with all the answers. George has the unnatural ability to communicate with the dead. Formerly famous and wealthy, he once used his powers to help others for profit. However the gift comes with a price. Knowing everything there is to know about people has made it tough for George to get close to anybody. Relationships are a no-no. He now wastes his time in a boring, uneventful life working construction, never using his powers. Or so he says. He's not that difficult to convince, really.
Over in England, twin brothers Marcus and Jason(Frankie and George McLaren) are basically all alone in the world. Their mother is a drug addict barely keeping social services from taking the two boys away. They've come to rely solely on eachother for everything. Marcus is the mischievous chatterbox, while Jason is shy and introverted. When Marcus is suddenly killed in a horrific car accident, his mother is shuffled off to rehab, leaving Jason all alone and unable to cope.
Three stories. One massive drag. After the massive spectacle of the film's opening(not typical for an Eastwood flick), I had hope that the rest of the story would at least keep up an energetic pace. Instead it falls into a disastrous lurch, never to escape. We follow George through his wildly uninteresting life, as he worries about being layed off at his job and shoos away potential clients. Finally resolving to have something of a social life, he takes a cooking class and hooks up with a sexy classmate(Bryce Dallas Howard). That ends disastrously, but at least a few chuckles are mined out of the deal. There won't be any more, so enjoy them while you can. Fed up, George flies off to England to get away from it all, and it's here after 2 hours that the stories finally converge. Marie is writing about the afterlife based on her own experiences, and Jason is desperately seeking an actual medium who can get him in touch with his brother.
By the time these characters begin to intersect, the gloom has already taken hold. Hereafter is by far Eastwood's most lifeless film, with Damon and pretty much everybody involved droning around like zombies mumbling about how awful they've had it. George's storyline is the most disappointing, and also the most pointless. Basically this is a story about coping with death, moving on after the loss of someone integral to our lives. To not let the past destroy a chance at a fulfilling future. So what is George's purpose in the story? Is he there as a sortof walking catharsis for the other characters? Even though the dreary tone would've sabotaged any chance of this being an enjoyable experience, the focus should have been solely on everybody else and not George. They're the ones with something to learn, not him.
George's pointlessness is amplified in the film's final moments, where suddenly it turns into the most depressing romance you've ever seen. Eastwood has described Hereafter as a chick flick, "But one that men will like too. Or at least one that won't make them want to stick a Swiss Army Knife in their leg." Maybe not, but I could've used a pair of toothpicks to stop my eyelids from drooping. Do yourself a favor and don't listen to Eastwood. This is a chick flick for extremely depressed women. Women who have posters of The Virgin Suicides
hanging on their wall. 
