Hereafter

Despite adequate acting, “Hereafter” fails to contain a compelling, moving story that grips the audience and without a heartbeat, the movie slowly dies.

The lead character in “Hereafter” is George Lonegan (Matt Damon), who is a retired physic because he couldn’t cope with his job and now works at a sugar factory. Marie LeLay (Cecile De France) is a French reporter that barely survived the famous 2004 Tsunami and is having trouble dealing with her near death experience. Marcus and Jason (both played by George and Frankie McLaren), two twins living in London have to deal with their mother’s drug habits. After a tragic accident that results in Jason’s death, Marcus is placed in the foster care system. The three lives are interconnected by death and the hereafter and eventually come together.

The acting in “Hereafter” is well-done and helps carry the movie. Damon shows audiences the struggles his character has because of his “gift” as his brother Billy (Jay Mohr) calls it. De France portrays the confusion and misplaced feeling she has due to her experience with death. The McLaren twins depict the sorrow and pain of Marcus losing his brother and all the constancy in his life, which leaves him longing for answers. However, there are times in the movie where either events or the acting is a little corny, not too much, but just enough to lose the audience in a brief sense of lameness.

Also there are many scenes of poor old George eating alone as a slowly picked guitar plays in the background. The scenes are placed to make the audience feel sympathy for George, but it is too frequent which desensitizes the audience to George’s loneliness. The other two characters, Marie and Marcus spend a half of their screen time staring blankly into space, or like George, being reclusive. It is clear that these characters are obviously dealing with issues, but their inner conflicts are poorly and dully displayed on screen.

These flaws are hardly the actors fault; the script (Peter Morgan) provides an excruciatingly slow plot. The audience knows that sooner or later all three will come together, but as the movie unfolds it becomes later, later and later rather than the preferable sooner, sooner and sooner.

“Hereafter” transitions from character to character, but the transitions are choppy. A scene will take place, and then before it should be done, it is and switches to a completely different character. Or there is a series of five second scenes with one character that then switches to another.

One element missing from “Hereafter” that would have made it more tolerable, would be to add more comic relief, audiences laughed maybe four times. Though it does not need the amount of a comedy, but more laughs would have sped up the plot and caused it to be more entertaining.

“Hereafter” actually fails to contain much of a plot to begin with, which is the biggest flaw. The characters are merely looking for solutions to their problem so they can move on with life, but that hardly makes for a good plot. The story is not really heading in a specific direction; it’s just plodding along, dragging the audience with it. It lacks the substance needed to move the story. The story is an interesting concept, but that hardly makes it an interesting movie. In all honesty, the story would make an excellent book because it would be able to dive more into the characters thoughts, but as a movie there is not enough visual appeal to carry the film.

However there were a few good aspects to “Hereafter” such as special effects, score and lighting. The special effects (various supervisors, technicians, producers, editors and artists) for the Tsunami were incredibly realistic. The wall of water and the power of the water created a chilling effect on the audience, giving them a dose of what facing a Tsunami would be like.

The score (Clint Eastwood) proves to be simple, mostly guitar, but it works well for the film. It’s the only likeable part of the “hermit” or “stare off into space” scenes.

The lighting (Ross Dunkerley) gives the movie a darker feel to it. When George does his “readings” for people the faces of the characters are shadowed creating a slight film noir look to it. Many times George’s apartment is dimly lit with just one light on in the kitchen that seems to subtly hint to George’s seclusion, which works well, making the numerous lonely scenes just a tad more acceptable.

“Hereafter” proves many things; it proves that substantial acting fails to make up for a slow, tiresome and non-existent plot. It also proves that Clint Eastwood needs to stick to killing people, not talking to the dead (although he has potential for a composer). Most of all, it proves that it lacks most of the ingredients necessary for a decent, entertaining film.