Hereafter (2010), with Matt Damon, Directed by Clint Eastwood: Movie Review

The actors are all perfectedly suited for this kind of film. Somehow in a Clint Eastwood film, whether he acts in it himself or not, faces remain imprinted on my mind as if I had been watching them in slow motion. It happened in Gran Torino, The Bridges of Madison County, and other movies of his. Same thing here. Every single moment on screen has an impact. That’s Clint Eastwood’s merit as well as the actors'.

What else bears his mark in this film? Well, the one-on-one scenes between lovers, would-be lovers, and brothers; the way in which emotions unfold; the way emotions carry the scenes; the pace of the scenes; every single gesture of the face and body. I would also like to mention here the way dialogue is connected to the expression of emotions, but I found that there was more dialogue than I had come to expect in a Clint Eastwood film. Some of it, a lot of it in fact, is in French, too. And there are bits in English that don't quite fit the mood. They sounded carefully chosen to fit the mood, but somehow they didn't pull it off for me. They're all in Matt Damon scenes. They are few and far between, however, so the general impression remains that, with the exception of the treatment of hereafter (see below), which doesn't quite fall in the purview of this director's interests, this movie has Clint Eastwood written all over it in the best of ways.

But other than that, wonderful scenes and food for thought. I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but here are some: Marcus at the tube station, losing the cap he wears; the cooking lesson and what it has to say about George (Matt Damon) the psychic, his relationships, and his life; the boys trying to protect their family from the intrusion of social services; the wonderful photo shoot that says so much about the boys’ personalities and relationship to each other.

If you have two hours to spare, I suggest you see this movie. For its humanity.