*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Clint Eastwood's latest movie is called "Hereafter", and as the title would suggest, the movie has something to do with life after death. There isn't only one story here, there are three. Eastwood uses the technique that previously made "Amores Perros" and "Babylon" the challenging films that they are. He tells the three seemingly separate stories (French journalist Marie, British twins Marcus and Jason, and the reluctant American medium George) for the entire first 1 hour and 45 minutes of the film, then attempts to tie them all together only in the last 15 minutes.
Unlike the first two movies though, "Hereafter" fails to sustain viewer interest because of its overlong, almost glacial progression. There were so many repetitive reflections and conversations talking about the same ideas. Granted the film begins with some awesomely shot and genuinely scary tsunami scenes. However, nothing after that could keep the momentum going for me. The worst is, at the very end, the merging of the three story lines was so disappointing, because it was predictable, even cheesy, and was thus ultimately unsatisfactory.
I may have watched this film with the wrong mindset. I may have been expecting a tad too much. Overall, it was just an OK film with a story that went on a bit too long for its own good. I also felt the same way with other Clint Eastwood films before like "The Changeling," "Flags of Our Fathers" or "Mystic River." I admire him for the diversity of interesting topics his films tackle but his approach can be too slow sometimes.
Clint Eastwood's latest movie is called "Hereafter", and as the title would suggest, the movie has something to do with life after death. There isn't only one story here, there are three. Eastwood uses the technique that previously made "Amores Perros" and "Babylon" the challenging films that they are. He tells the three seemingly separate stories (French journalist Marie, British twins Marcus and Jason, and the reluctant American medium George) for the entire first 1 hour and 45 minutes of the film, then attempts to tie them all together only in the last 15 minutes.
Unlike the first two movies though, "Hereafter" fails to sustain viewer interest because of its overlong, almost glacial progression. There were so many repetitive reflections and conversations talking about the same ideas. Granted the film begins with some awesomely shot and genuinely scary tsunami scenes. However, nothing after that could keep the momentum going for me. The worst is, at the very end, the merging of the three story lines was so disappointing, because it was predictable, even cheesy, and was thus ultimately unsatisfactory.
I may have watched this film with the wrong mindset. I may have been expecting a tad too much. Overall, it was just an OK film with a story that went on a bit too long for its own good. I also felt the same way with other Clint Eastwood films before like "The Changeling," "Flags of Our Fathers" or "Mystic River." I admire him for the diversity of interesting topics his films tackle but his approach can be too slow sometimes.
No comments:
Post a Comment