Au-delà

An emotional film (bring some hankies) exploring the love of children for their mother, the loss of a loved one, and the near-death experiences of the two main characters. The acting is superb, particularly the young McLaren brothers and Cecile DeFrance. I applaud Clint Eastwood for taking this risk and creating a solid piece with riveting emotions and a fantastic conclusion. The only leap of faith that must be taken is the belief that George (Matt Damon) truly has this gift/curse since it is the thread that weaves through all his relationships. This is truly an enjoyable movie and adds to my belief that the greatness of a film is not in the critic's eyes but in your own. This is the second sleeper movie of the week for me. The first one was RED...a great, entertaining movie.

On the way home from seeing this terrific movie, I stopped at a light, a few cars in front waiting to turn right. Around us, the sun had just set, a full white moon was high and the reflections of brake lights bounced off gas stations and car dealerships.

What an amazing world we live in. There is so much in the five miles between my house and the theater where I saw the movie that I could never experience it all. Moments arrive and disappear and the the people shift, move, appear and disappear.

I think most of us need some kind of assurance that it all goes on forever, that our open windows aren't just blacked over and sealed at death.

Clint Eastwood has made a quiet, reflective, thoughtful film on this condition, this need for forever. It's not a flashy paranormal probe of ghosts and goblins, spirits and such.

Taking three central lives we see our need for a hereafter from a French woman who has experienced something before being revived, from a twin boy who has lost his brother and from a lonely man who seems able to capture something from beyond this life. Or perhaps he just captures something from those who come to him.

Cecile De France is stunning as a television reporter who touches her own death and returns. Frankie (or is it George) McLaren is good as the young boy. And Matt Damon's restrained performance is a revelation.

Eastwood has the assured hand that allows long segments in French with English subtitles and a juncture with two disasters and such a touchy-feely subject, and yet it works. Quietly. Thoughtfully.

He also has the good sense to let us draw our own conclusions.

Clint Eastwood decided to take a peak at what his vision of the other side looks like in Hereafter. This is probably the most speculated upon topic that mankind has, we all have our own ideas. At one time this was the purview of organized religion, but over the past century they've lost their monopoly.

Hereafter concerns three people, American psychic Matt Damon, French journalist Cecile De France, and British adolescent Frank/George McLaren who are twins and play the same role. One is looking for a sign from the afterlife, one gets one, and the third does not want to be getting any more of them.

It's kind of unusual for a film to start with a spectacular display of technical effects, but Hereafter features that as De France is caught in a tsunami where she was probably technically dead and then rescued. During that time she experiences some strange things and she's changed forever by it. She drops everything else to research into the topic.

Matt Damon is a good place to start, but this man wants nothing, but obscurity. He is a psychic who at one time made a living at it, but the demands and pressures put on him for his gift became unbearable. When he breaks down and gives an interview to someone at his brother's request, it all starts to come back so he flees to London, the home and workplace of Charles Dickens who as an author Damon thinks is tops. I could really relate to Damon's character, there are times that pressures make one long for obscurity, Damon initially finds it as a factory worker, but that blows up on him as the film shows.

Frank/George McLaren is a British kid, twins in fact and one of them is abruptly killed. As twins they were by nature close and it's like half of yourself no longer exists. He just wants some reassurance that his other half is fine somewhere on some plane of existence. I know that feeling too, a lot of it is losing someone and never having had a chance to say goodbye to them.

Though Hereafter got an Oscar for visual effects both for the tsunami and later for a London Subway bombing, Clint Eastwood gets some good performances out of his human cast members as well. The McLaren twins are quite touching in fact and come off as real kids.

Some might find Hereafter unsettling, but I liked it and go out and raid your Redbox to find it.

Clint Eastwood likes to make his films slow paced and this can be annoying at times. In my opinion Sands of Iwo Jima was boring and Grand Torino was overly sentimental but with Hereafter he was the right man for the job. The pacing is perfect with the story unfolding in just the right way, eliciting just the right emotions at just the right time (the opening scene is genuinely terrifying) and giving us enough time to think and absorb without ever boring us.

As for Matt Damon, this is a masterpiece. There are so many depths and subtleties to this role and Mr Damon gets it all. George Lonegan is a creepy haunted loner with poor social skills, not in spite of but *because* he's a big hearted person who cares too much. And Damon *gets* that, and shows it, you can see it in every frame of the movie, even when he's not moving a muscle. I know this movie won't be for everyone but this performance is one of the greats, a real tour de force of subtlety.

Lastly, the writing, the story is something not seen often enough these days, a thoughtful movie about a complex and emotive subject that doesn't treat the audience like idiots. There are a lot of questions unanswered here, and that's alright, there should be. This movie isn't about answers or some kind of payoff, it's about guiding the viewer through the story's of three people with very interesting perspectives so that we can all feel our way though it together. I love that the writers trust us to do that and don't try to force feed us a "message" or a moral.

A great thoughtful film about a difficult subject that will leave you feeling good, as long as you're not expecting to be spoon fed.

This film tells the story of three people who have different degrees of experiences with death.

The subplot about the kid is particularly heart wrenching. I find the story gripping. Just as expected, Clint Eastwood delivers yet another thought provoking and emotional film again.