MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Hereafter Rated PG-13

Directed by Clint Eastwood.  Starring Matt Damon, Cécile de France.

Photo © 2010 Warner Brothers Pictures
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

The mark of a good film is its power to resonate in your memory for days later.  This was my experience with Hereafter, a movie that seemed somewhat slight and slight-of-hand while I was watching it, but has provoked reflection ever since. 

On the surface, Hereafter is a film about life after death.  The three stories that are told happen somewhat simultaneously. 

One involves a French woman (de France) who has survived a near death experience; another story is about a young British boy (Frankie McLaren) dealing with grief and loss; and the third story is about a psychic (Damon) who finds his ability to speak to dead people more of a curse than a blessing. 

The three stories span continents and classes. The visual scope of Hereafter is vast, including three continents, a major natural disaster, and even intimations of eternal life. 

Peter Morgan, the screenwriter, has publicly stated that he doesn’t believe in life after death, and I believe him; the film doesn’t spend much time with implicit religious language. 

But the humanity of the script, along with Clint Eastwood’s stately, patient direction and film score, along with Tom Stern’s cinematography, give God plenty of room to work, and I found Hereafter to be a beautiful reminder of our spiritual need for relationship, on earth as in heaven. 

The good news of Jesus Christ is, after all, about God’s love moving from law towards grace and from covenant keeping towards relationship.

The way in which the film’s stories eventually come together is farfetched and improbable, but I was very happy with its peaceful resolution.  The movie is slow-paced, mostly quiet, and clocks in at a little over two hours.  But I would encourage you to give this film a chance.

Hereafter is a movie worth some discussion afterwards, and hereafter.  

Pitchfork/Halo Ratings:
Four halos.
A large-scale film with quiet, intimate stories to tell about our eternal need for community.

One pitchfork.
Some scenes involving death may be too intense for children, who are likely to be bored by the slow pace of this film, anyway.

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