By Nick Rosa

After my viewing of Hereafter, the first thing that popped into my mind was that this is not the best work of what acclaimed actor/director Clint Eastwood has to offer. Even with the comments from other viewers coming out of the movie theater, even the biggest of Eastwood fans were disappointed.

The film starts off with an amazing visual scene of destruction with a tsunami sweeping across the resort leaving behind massive amounts of mayhem, destruction, and death. However, for as beautifully the scene was staged, Eastwood’s interpretation of what the afterlife would look like is a little unsatisfying and a little original. As the scene moves on to what Eastwood’s vision of the hereafter is with ghostly images of the dead and a pouring element of white light, it all seems too familiar to films that have that same belief. You would expect something unique coming from Eastwood. But with the amazing visuals and water effects that matched in with what the hereafter was portraying it all blended well with the scene.

Now, just barely into the film, what Eastwood delivers is a lackluster portrayal of what the afterlife is through the eyes of the three central characters.

Cecile de France plays Marie Lelay, a French TV reporter. On a beach resort in Southeast Asia, she steps out of her hotel room leaving behind her boyfriend who is also the producer to her TV news show, and is swept away by the tsunami. She is swept away and is pulled from the water by two people who try to revive her but fail. As being shown through her eyes of going to the “hereafter,” she is greeted to death by fuzzy images of those who have recently passed away. However, she is not dead and believes she’s had a near death experience and has seen the other side. After her ordeal she returns to France to continue her work but isn’t able to concentrate on anything else but her near death experience and is basically forced out of work as a reporter and focuses all of her energy on researching and working on her own book about the afterlife.

George, played by Matt Damon, is from San Francisco and has an ability to reach out to the dead. He no longer wants to use these powers that he calls a curse anymore, and live a normal life and to be able to have a romantic relationship. He put that part of his life behind him and his brother thinks he has made the wrong decision. His brother who knows people would pay big money to communicate with the deceased wants his brother George to continue to use his powers. George does find interest from a woman in his Italian cooking class but she runs away after she discovers his ability, after she had forced him to reach out to some dead relatives, and is disturbed on what they had to say from beyond the grave.

The third set of characters are two twins from England, Jason and Marcus. Jason dies and Marcus searches for answers on what happens when we die and wants to communicate with his brother who he misses dearly. Marcus goes to many psychics where he quickly discovers how fake they are.

I won’t ruin the main points of the movie but from the beginning you know the three characters, while searching for answers, will all converge together at the climax of the film.

The acting overall was quite good with Matt Damon always committing 100 percent to every roll he’s been in, he really captures the emotion of his character. Even though the role he played wasn’t that demanding of him, he was able to pull it off just like he has done in every other film he has been in.

Cecile de France played a good role but seemed like she lacked the emotion needed for her to really portray the character.

The twins in fact had the most moving roles in the film. With their commitment to each other as brothers, and with their obsession in finding out what happens in the afterlife, it makes their story that much more compelling.

The tone and pace of the film is kind of slow and gets dragged out for being 129 minutes. I can’t complain about the acting or the visual effects in the film because they were all well done. It was just disappointing to see an Eastwood film not be great.

Overall the film was enjoyable and something that viewers would like but for those Clint Eastwood fans that expect nothing but the best from him, you will be sadly disappointed.