Movie Review: Hereafter

Hereafter
Director:  Clint Eastwood
Executive Producers:  Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Tim Moore, Peter Morgan
Cast: Matt Damon, Bryce Dallas Howard, Cecile de France, Jay Mohr, Frankie McLaren, George McLaren
Written by Peter Morgan
Released:  October 2010 in theatres   DVD March 15, 2011
PG-13 - mature themes, brief language
Genre:  Thriller/Suspense
Running Time:  129 minutes
Academy Award Nominee 2010 for best visual effects

George (Matt Damon) is blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it.  By grasping another's hands, George can "see" the dead loved ones of the individual concerned.  Draining and disconcerting to be sure, George doesn't want to "see" any more.  He quit that life of making a living from this communication.  Normalcy is what he sought.

Marie (Cecile De France), is a French journalist, who survives a near-death experience in a tsunami.  She continues to have visions of her experience, remembering her close call, and it changes her life. Marcus, a London schoolboy, can't move on.  He is in continual mourning over the loss of his twin brother and desperately seeks answers.

As Marie and Marcus seek answers their paths intersect with George.  Can he help them seek that which alludes them?  Can they find the answers and the peace desired?   And what becomes of George?

The movie began in a great wave of tsunami horror and the audience is washed along as we watch the waves pummel a small village, destroying everything, sparing few.  A great beginning, but then the movie loses momentum.  It drags a bit.  Intentional?  I don't know.  The three characters' lives seem to take forever to take hold and to intersect.  Perhaps this is to create a sense of wonderment and mystery in the topic of afterlife?  It just seemed too slow and long.  At 129 minutes, it dragged.

The casting is excellent and I really liked Cecile DeFrance as Marie.  The McLaren brothers portrayal of Marcus was on the mark.  The special effects were breathtaking.  I thought for sure the tsunami was from actual footage, it seemed so real. 

Rated 3/5  Rent if for yourself and decide.