Going into Eternity, I had high expectations, given its star-studded cast, produced by the popular A24 independent film and television production/distribution company. Elizabeth Olsen’s character, Joan, must decide between her two loves: her first husband of one year, who tragically died in the Korean War, or her second husband of 65 years.
The concept of the movie is captivating, a second-chance first-love romance versus a stable and dependable one, and choosing where to go to spend eternity. In theory, this could be a great movie. However, the execution was lacking. Director David Freyne created a lackluster film.
The film begins with an elderly Joan (Betty Buckley) and her husband of 65 years, elderly Larry (Barry Primus). The two are driving to the gender reveal party for their grandchild. Joan scolds her husband for eating pretzels too fast, and, expectedly, Larry soon after chokes on pretzels and dies. Larry wakes up on an afterlife train, now as a younger version of himself (Miles Tellar). Characters’ age in the afterlife reflect the age they experienced their happiest version of themselves.
Joan passes soon after Larry from cancer. She arrives in the afterlife as well, where Larry is waiting for her. Her gorgeous (I lost track of how many times characters called him “hot”) first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), rushes to see his first love, who he has been waiting 67 years to be reunited with.
From the moment the film started, I knew who Joan would choose; the ending was no surprise to me.
A huge issue for me came down to the lack of chemistry between the actors. I felt no connection between either romance, as Olsen did not seem to connect with Tellar or Turner. I do not want to watch an entire movie about romance if I cannot feel any romantic connection at all between the characters.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s lines saved Eternity from being completely devoid of humor. Randolph plays Anna, Olsen’s afterlife coordinator, who works to guide each newly deceased into the afterlife.
The movie runs for 1 hour and 53 minutes, a fairly average length. Ironically, the movie felt like an eternity. After what seemed like two hours, I paused the movie only to realize I was barely halfway through. It really came down to the lack of excitement. To me, almost every moment felt predictable, especially the end. Don’t get me wrong, I love a predictable rom-com movie, but this film lacked the rom and the com, and was entirely too predictable.
The saving grace was the cinematography. In every A24 film I have seen, every shot feels like an award-winning photograph. The tones and lighting perfectly captured the sense of a place beyond Earth. The setting is neither in heaven nor hell, it is a transitional place before one chooses the afterlife. In the transitional place, the newly deceased chose the one place to spend eternity, a tropical beach, a snowy mountain, basically everywhere you can think of.
The movie is rated PG-13 and can be found on Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video.
Image source: IMDb