Eternity, 2025.
Directed by David Freyne.
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Betty Buckley, John Early, Olga Merediz, Kristina Capati, Olga Petsa, Panta Mosleh, Jeanie Cloutier, Kyle Warren, Elodie Venece, Danny Mac, Devielle Johnson, and Noah Bromley.
SYNOPSIS:
In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.
Admittedly, there was some skepticism coming into co-writer/director David Freyne’s Eternity (scribed alongside Patrick Cunnane), with concern that, no matter how inventive its bureaucratic, rule-heavy take on the afterlife, the love triangle at the center would amount to nothing more than a woman reduced to choosing a man. That did come true, although the real shock and brunt of the frustration here comes from just below how obnoxious and childish these two men are – constantly bickering and coming across so annoying that one wants to push both of them down a flight of stairs – within a heavy situation that demands some sensitivity and at least one of them to put the woman’s feelings first. What’s most aggravating is that this makes up the majority of the film, somewhat leaving the more tantalizing aspects of this imagining of the afterlife underexplored.
At one point, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) was married to Luke (Callum Turner) before he tragically lost his life in the Korean War. Two years later, she remarried to Larry (Miles Teller), living out a full life with a family and into old age (played in the prologue by Barry Primus and Betty Buckley with the energy of a couple who know each other inside out and love one another). Happily ever after has to come to an end sometime for everyone, though. At a gender reveal party for their next grandchild, Larry dies in an accident, played for laughs on multiple levels, arriving at the afterlife and learning the lay of the land from his coordinator (another warm and hilarious turn from Da’Vine Joy Randolph), while he awaits his terminally ill wife to join him. Luke is also lurking around somewhere, having waited over 50 years to be reunited with Joan.
There are also two reasons Larry is suddenly played by Miles Teller in the afterlife: the first is the obvious feedback that no one likely wanted to touch or fund this movie unless the filmmakers found a way for younger stars to carry the bulk of the story. The second is that the filmmakers found that chess move in writing into the screenplay that, when someone dies, they take on the appearance of the time when they were happiest. And while the above might sound like a grievance, it’s not; it’s actually an innovative storytelling touch that smartly comes into play in the love triangle.
Other afterlife rules (which are highly reminiscent of Tim Burton’s interpretation in Beetlejuice, but without the gothic aesthetic and horror elements) make less sense, such as the idea that each soul can choose only one paradise to live in. Coming back into the afterlife headquarters, which is constructed to resemble an airport (one neat touch is that everyone walking around preparing to choose an afterlife is also dressed for vacation), is considered a crime (yes, there are jobs, and apparently, one of them is a police force to ensure souls don’t leave their chosen paradise). As for these paradises, they range from common choices—beaches and mountains — to more idiosyncratic tastes, such as space-themed, a world without men, a food haven, and plenty more advertisements tucked away in the background of various scenes. It’s also a shame that the most imaginative part of this world-building doesn’t actually come into play, even if there are other creative touches, such as an exhibit that walks a visitor through every memory of their life.
Nevertheless, Larry’s afterlife coordinator (it’s also worth noting that the people taking up jobs in this bureaucratic space do so because they are unsure of their afterlife purposes for now) lays down the rules, sets him up in an apartment-like room, and hands him a brochure on popular paradises. Naturally, Larry decides he wants to wait until Joan arrives so they can choose where they want to spend their afterlife together. Once Joan does arrive, the love triangle brings to the surface some heady questions, including why Joan fell in love with Larry in the first place (something he also has to dig deep and figure out if she is ever going to choose another life with him versus seizing the opportunity to spend one with Luke).
Again, almost none of that is handled with compelling dramatic weight or believable human behavior, opting instead to have Larry and Luke antagonize one another for 90 minutes and search for dirt on each other. This behavior is made all the more baffling when one remembers that Larry should, in theory, have much wisdom and maturity as an older man with Miles Teller merely serving as a younger avatar. Credit does go to the performances, though, for keeping that aspect in mind while delivering dialogue. It’s also bizarre that, once in the afterlife, Larry and Joan rarely talk about their life together, miss their children or grandchildren, or discuss what they left behind; the only thing that matters is the choice Joan has to make, and it grows tiring fast.
Around halfway through Eternity, it is a mystery why Joan fell in love with either of them, leaving one unable to care about who she chooses. To the film’s credit, it does get serious to a degree, but only as an excuse to take every false ending road possible, swerving and swerving the viewer until it feels like this might actually go on for eternity. There are things to admire here, but much of the world-building comes across as a failed live-action version of a Pixar concept, with the only characters remotely likable and worth caring about being the workers slowly discovering purpose as they watch these knuckleheads fight over Joan. At the very least, the reductive choice she is forced to make is most certainly a complicated and tough one, and its gravitas occasionally rises above the film’s problems.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
