Hereafter: Review By harveycritic

HEREAFTER

Warner Bros

Reviewed for MovieWeb by Harvey Karten

Grade: B-

Directed By: Clint Eastwood

Written By: Peter Morgan

Cast: Matt Damon, Cécile de France, Frankie McLaren, George McLaren, Bryce Dallas Howard, Derek Jacobi, Jay Mohr

Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 10/12/10

Opens: October 22, 2010

Dirty Harry has mellowed with age, and that's not necessarily a bad thing depending on what you're looking for in a major commercial film. "Hereafter," given the subtitles for the scenes in France and Indonesia (filmed in Hawaii) are plentiful, which is a good thing because they acclimate an audience not accustomed to seeing foreign language pictures to the fact that there's a world out there outside of the U.S. A movie in part about conjuring up visions of people who have died is dealt with by Clint Eastwood not with horror, not with plethora of chintzy special effects, not even with much melodrama. Fans of blockbusters-principally the under 30 set-could be disappointed if they expected the conventional spook-show, but mature adults who cherish films about the wide variety of human relationships might cheer. Then again, so pallid is the eighty-year-old director's "Hereafter" that even fans of arthouse cinema might regret that only the startling introduction offers a hint of a scare.

The triptych, or opening of three separate points of connection between the living and the departed, will come together toward the conclusion, however clunky and far-fetched, but the real interest comes not from Shyamalin-style histrionics. The connections between the living and the living are more important. One might dare say that "Hereafter" could come across almost as well if the mysticism were virtually eliminated.

In the first of three stories, Marie LeLay (Belgian actress Cecile de France) and her lover, Didier (Thierry Neuvic) are vacationing on an Indonesia island when their holiday offers more than expected-no extra charge. A tsunami, the revenge of mother nature whose boredom is relieved by scenes of horrified tourists, bursts forth out of nowhere, the special effects using the natural waves of the ocean as the raging waters cover the entire beach, then stretch out like an invading army into the town leaving in its path perhaps thousands of dead. Marie is among the nearly-dead, having hit her head, rendered unconscious, though she revives moments later on the beach, but not before witnessing visions during the time she was at death's door. A political newscaster and author assigned to write a scathing biography of former French President François Mitterand, she instead immerses herself in a book entitled "Hereafter," through which she will ultimate meet George Lonegan (Matt Damon).

George is a psychic who can see visions of the departed by briefly touching the hand of the inquirer, but considers his gift a curse, and is unwilling to make a business out of his skill despite the urgings of his brother, Billy (Jay Mohr). Ruining a potential relationship with the beautiful Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard) whom he meets in a cooking class by telling her more than she wants to hear, he wants more than even to stick to a more mundane profession until twelve-year-old Marcus (George McLaren also played by his twin brother Frankie McLaren) insists on communicating with his brother, recently passed after an auto accident.

Peter Morgan, whose scripts for "The Queen," "The Last King of Scotland" and "Frost/Nixon" bestow on him a deserved reputation for politically-conscious cinema, is virtually apolitical, though he does make a point that François Mitterand was, in his view, a selfish dud of French leader. Matt Damon plays against type in a most un-Bournish, un-Oceans Thirteen fellow, playing the restrained role of a clairvoyant who only reluctantly divulges information to the grief-stricken, though at the conclusion, against logic, he is able to conjure up the future.

Tom Stern's camera hones in nicely on the touristy areas of Paris, London, San Francisco and Hawaii, with visual effects supervisor Michael Owens in his métier at least during the opening moments of the story.

Rated PG-13. 129 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online