Hereafter is a melancholic rumination on the afterlife

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      Starring Matt Damon and Cécile De France. Rated PG. Opens Friday, October 22

      One of the strengths of Clint Eastwood as a director is his eclectic taste in scripts. Just when you think you’ve got him pegged, he’ll turn around and do something completely different. This time around, he’s tackling a story that is so quietly refined it makes The Bridges of Madison County look like Dirty Harry.


      Watch the trailer for Hereafter.

      In Hereafter—a melancholy rumination on three people deeply affected by thoughts on the afterlife—Eastwood is so intent on doing service to Peter Morgan’s pensive screenplay that the cagey gruffness behind his trademark touch virtually disappears. Along the way, we get everything from a generous helping of subtitles to an atmosphere with a distinctly European sensibility. Even the score he composed—spare jazz guitar that gently prods the story along—seems ghostly when compared to his other soundtracks.

      Eastwood takes his sweet time letting three separate stories unfold before they inevitably intersect at—wait for it—the London Book Fair. There is French newscaster Marie LeLay (Cécile De France), a career woman whose life is sidetracked by a near-death experience. There is George Lonegan (Matt Damon), a genuine clairvoyant who simply wants to lead a normal life. And, finally, there is Marcus (played alternately by Frankie and George McLaren), a young English boy still grieving over the death of his twin brother.

      Inevitably, this is a movie fuelled by good intentions. Damon turns in a sensitive performance as a working-class guy who considers his psychic gift a curse. And the entire cast works hard to keep things admirably low-key. However, in the end, there is something drab and unconvincing about the whole exercise. Mulling over the hereafter is fine, but it would be nice to see a little more earthly energy invested in the characters. At times, they seem all too ready to just float away.

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