Hereafter

            Hereafter is the latest film directed by the great Clint Eastwood. This movie follows along the same lines of his other films he has directed as it is a drama that is a little depressing at times and deals with a heavy subject. In this case the entire film revolves around death and what lies ahead for us all in life after death.
             The movie tells the story of three separate people around the world who have all been touched by death in someway. First of all, there's Matt Damon who plays George Lonegan, a factory worker who used to make a living by being able to talk to the dead and doing readings for people. Yet, this looks into his life and his ability as a curse and not a gift. Then there's famous French journalist Marie Lelay (Cecile de France) who barely survived a devastating tsunami and had a near death experience. Finally, a young english boy named Marcus who experiences a death of someone close to him.
              The film's story travels back and forth between these three people's lives and how they deal and cope with their experiences and try to move on with their lives. Of course these three people's lives don't stay separate for long as by film's end all of their lives intersect in some way.
               With a running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes it isn't terribly long, but I feel like the story is a bit slow in getting to its climax and could have been edited down to under two hours and the film would have been better. As for the acting it is quite good and I give credit to the boys who played Marcus as he did a good job for being so young. There are some notable bit characters as Jay Mohr (Jerry MaGuire) plays George's self centered brother and Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Lady in the Water) plays a love interest of George.
              In the end I was a bit disappointed with this movie as I have come to expect more from Clint Eastwood films. Like I already said it is a bit slow and the plot wasn't has enthralling as I thought it was going to be. Now don't get me wrong it was not a bad film but it wasn't great either. Eastwood's previous two films, Invictus and Gran Torino, were each more above par.
               Overall, I have to give this movie two out of four stars and a thumb in the middle. I would recommend using Redbox to see this movie if you're interested in it as that way it costs you no more than two dollars. If you're interested in this movie I say see it, it's not bad and you may disagree with me and my projections of it and think its much better than I say. If you were already hesitant about this movie then I would say you should probably stick with your instincts and not see it.

Look for my next review which will be on the thriller Chloe starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Amanda Seyfried