Starring: Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Jay Mohr

Directed by Clint Eastwood

So I’ve just seen the movie, “Hereafter”, today and here is my review.

Plot/Synopsis: Marie Lelay, a French TV journalist goes on vacation by the Indian Ocean, until she becomes a victim of a dangerous, tsunami there. After her near death experience with the tsunami, she plans to write a book about it. George Lonnegan (Matt Damon’s character) is a retired psychic, who has the ability to speak with people who are dead. Throughout the movie, people have become obsessed with George’s power ’cause they want to hear about their loved ones in the after life.

Please be aware that this movie is a slow pacing drama. It’s not the big special effects movie that the trailers made it out to be. The movie is still really good though. I thought it told an interesting story. It’s basically about life after death. My only problem with the film, is that I didn’t like Matt Damon being the leading star of the film. I think a movie like this is more fitting for an actor with talent. I can see someone like Josh Brolin or Robert Downey Jr., playing the lead in this film. Matt Damon is an okay actor, but he’s kind of overrated. I saw the movie ’cause the story looked interesting to me, I didn’t see it ’cause Matt was in it.

If you get bored with slow drama films, then this isn’t your film. I think Eastwood wanted to make a movie like this ’cause he’s getting old and he always wondered what it would be like with life after death. The script probably reminded him of his own life. The other actors in the movie, did a great acting job though. I was impressed with Jay Mohr’s character, who is a legendary stand up comedian and occasional film actor. Cecille De France is a great actress from Belgium, didn’t even know who she was until I saw her in this movie. The movie is mostly spoken in French since the people in the film are French, so there will be a lot of subtitles in the film.

This is not the best Clint Eastwood directed movie, he’s directed better movies in the past, definitely, but I liked his new one, “Hereafter”. The story to “Hereafter” may seem boring to you, but once you start watching the film, you’ll say to yourself, “This is really interesting storytelling”. Nobody wants to know what it’s like to die. Everybody wants to know what life is like after death. That’s the idea of the film here. It seems that Clint is a religious man and this might be his way of expressing it. I really liked, “Hereafter”, I just wished Clint picked a better leading star ’cause I don’t see this film landing in the Oscars this time around, although I do see Jay Mohr landing a nomination for his role though.

Score for “Hereafter” = (*** = 3 stars as in “good”)

Kev