Hereafter

Directed by Clint Eastwood, showing at the Vue cinema at The Grafton at 18:10 and 21:00 from Friday 28th January

[rating: 2/5]

With Clint Eastwood as director, Matt Damon in the starring role, Peter Morgan on the script and, on top of it all, Steven Spielberg co-producing, Hereafter was bound for success. It had the entire package- a famously strong writer, a thought-provoking premise and a sizeable amount of eye-candy thrown into the mix. A veritable formula for Oscar success. So the horrible question remains:

How on earth did it all go so very, very wrong?

The film follows three narrative strands, one set in San Francisco, one in London and one in Paris. Each of the stories are, at first sight, beautifully and subtly tragic. Over in the States Matt Damon portrays George, who has the remarkable ability to converse with the dead. And, despite his attempts to start a new life and leave the spiritual world behind him, – seemingly through cooking classes  – he struggles to achieve the longed-for normality. Meanwhile in Paris, Cécile De France plays Marie, a successful anchorwoman who risks everything to tell the world of the vision of the afterlife she received in a near-death experience.Finally we have the story of a young boy who is overcome by the death of his twin brother.

It’s exactly the kind of material that Eastwood usually thrives on, but it just doesn’t work. You can see  he’s aiming for subtle, powerful development, but it just ends up slow, cringe-worthy and, for the most part, boring.  Damon’s understated performance is undeniably superb, and keeps the film from plunging head first into the realm of the unbearable, but his chemistry with the two female leads is non-existent. One scene shows him and Bryce-Dallas Howard, his partner for cooking class, playing the ingredient guessing-game blindfolded. It’s a limp cliche, and doesn’t produce any effect.

The other leads put in relatively solid performances.  Cécile De France is, if nothing else, ravishing, and her Parisian style does add a certain element of cinematic beauty as she glides from scene to scene. However, it’s also straying too close to the predictable stereotype. Every time she’s on screen, we’re pummelled with absurdly romantic Frenchie music as she swans around while pouting. It may all be very pretty, but this isn’t a Chanel advert, and Eastwood doesn’t seem to be taking his own characters seriously.

The real tragedy ought to have been the London twins. After his brother’s death, Marcus is left alone in the world and thrust into foster care when his junkie mother finally checks into rehab.  – and without his brother to lead the way, is lost. It might have been heart-rending if  the kids that play the twins could act: Eastwood seems to have made a casting decision based on the necessity of getting identical twins and apparently the teensy little detail that they should probably be able to read lines skipped his mind.

When the paths of these characters finally cross, it all seems a little contrived and predictable. Despite this, the cameo of Derek Jacobi playing himself is a stroke of genius, but again draws attention to the sheer amount of talent that was inexplicably involved in creating such a flop. It’s not an unmitigated disaster, but it is pretty damn bad, and with all the wonderful movies flitting around this Oscar season, Hereafter is one to avoid.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XvJwTYnKww