Eternity: Movie Review

Cast: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, John Early, Olga Merediz, Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Director: David Freyne

A clever twist on the idea of the afterlife, director David Freyne's take on the romcom is an unmitigated blast of creativity that basks in an afterglow that may leave you contemplating your own future.

Essentially a traditional rom-com in which the heroine questions her choices in life and ponders the path-less-taken, Eternity sees Miles Teller and Elisabeth Olsen's Larry and Joan facing their own mortality.

While she battles end-stage cancer, he dies first after he accidentally chokes on a pretzel at a gender reveal party for family (after years of nagging by Joan to leave them alone). Awaking on a train, Larry finds himself living as a younger version of himself (one of Eternity's afterlife quirks is that you get to spend the rest of your life as the version of yourself when you were happiest) and heading to the Junction, a purgatory-like station / The Terminal where his AC (afterlife  coordinator) will help him through to the next stage.

But when he gets there, he's told he has only seven days to choose where next to go - prompting him to plead with his AC Anna (Randolph, excellent throughout) to let him wait for Joan's arrival. 

However, when Joan arrives, she finds her own afterlife thrown into confusion when her first husband Luke (a suave Turner) shows up, telling her he waited 67 years in the Junction for her after he died during the Korean War....

Eternity takes a great premise and imbues the tired trope with an (after)life full of quirk, warmth and whimsy. 

From endless sight gags about what other afterlives have on offer and which the confused Larry and Joan should choose, Eternity makes much use of its relative chamber-piece approach to the story. But there are weighty philosophical issues in this, which never once are thrown at audiences or bog down the story. 

There's a distinct feeling of what would you do in a similar position, while also leaving you pondering on accepting what you have now and possibly forever. These are big concepts which could pull down a film like this, but the warmth of the central players and the light touch of the script helps to keep things breezy for the most part. (A middle section could do with a trim, in truth.)

Eternity bristles with creativity and its trio make for timeless versions of the romcom heros and heroines. But rather than shade them in black and whites, all three of them play to the grey areas of their character - from Joan's inability to choose to Larry's insistence that after 65 years there's no decision through to Luke's lost life and love, it makes for an engaging love triangle.

It's a very charming film, one that provides unexpected moments of mirth and introspection and leaves wondering what forever would mean to you. On that front, spending a few hours with this Eternity is nowhere near long enough.