Hereafter (2010– 129 mins) M.Damon, C. De France

Hereafter is really three seperate stories of sadness involving death and their inevitable coming together in the end to wrap it all up. First we have George (Damon) who has psychic connection to the afterlife and the dead. He is able to make a connection to a subject’s loved one once he touches them and is able to “hone in” on their life. It’s a bit supernatural for a movie trying to keep close to “reality” but he’s not a fake so just use suspension of disbelief for this one. Next we have French journalist Marie. Marie experiences death in the form of a near death experience surviving a devastating tsunami while on vacation. Marie has lingering effects of this experience, with some visions and wants to write a book on her experiences. Finally we have twin boys Frankie and George. They experience a close loss that leaves them devastated and unable to fully deal with it.

Each one of the stories begins good enough and manages to get us involved in their stories. In fact the scene of the tsunami is one of the most amazing piece of filming I have seen in a long time. However, the real good parts end there. The movie is WAYYYY to damn long to fully enjoy. Even having 3 separate stories to bring together I don’t think they need over two hours to do so. It’s easily 30 mins past what the movie needs to be. This slow story development hinders the advancement of the plot so much that when we finally get  to the oh so brief meetings of the characters and obvious ending that we just don’t care anymore. It’s not even that any of the performances are bad. I thought Damon was good and the twins were excellent. Even the fairly zombie-like performances by everyone in the French story line I could forgive. You just say “end already!” so much that the quality of the performances are completely lost.

Verdict–> A movie which if was 90 mins would be a 7 , but at 129 mins becomes a 3. If you got the time and 2 pots of coffee to stay awake sure you might like it. If not, it’s a pretty avoidable film. Again a decent movie with too much time and predictability. Not a very strong recommendation here.

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