Hereafter (2010)

A drama centered on three people - a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy - who are touched by death in different ways.

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writer:

Peter Morgan

Stars:

Matt Damon, Cécile de France, Bryce Dallas Howard

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cécile de France	...	Marie Lelay
Thierry Neuvic	...	Didier
Cyndi Mayo	...	Island Hotel Clerk (as Cyndi Mayo Davis)
Lisa Griffiths	...	Stall Owner
Jessica Griffiths	...	Island Girl
Ferguson Reid	...	Rescuer
Derek Sakakura	...	Rescuer
Jay Mohr	...	Billy
Richard Kind	...	Christos
Matt Damon	...	George Lonegan
Charlie Creed-Miles	...	Photographer
Frankie McLaren	...	Marcus / Jason
George McLaren	...	Marcus / Jason
Lyndsey Marshal	...	Jackie
Rebekah Staton	...	Social Worker

Storyline

A drama centered on three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George Lonegan (Matt Damon) is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, French journalist, Marie Lelay (Cécile de France) has a near-death experience which shakes her reality, and when London schoolboy Marcus (identical twins Frankie McLaren and George McLaren) loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each looking to understand the one thing all life has in common, but can never share, their lives will cross, changed by what they believe might, or must, exist in the hereafter.

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Plot Keywords:

near death experience | car | airplane | italian food | crying | 

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Taglines:

Touched by death. Changed by life.

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements including disturbing disaster and accident images, and for brief strong language

Did You Know?

Trivia

After George Lonegan (Matt Damon) does the psychic reading for his brother's client, he turns on a book on tape and lays down. He is listening to Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield".

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Goofs

When Marie goes to the clinic in Switzerland, the mountain road is not in Switzerland but in France. The security sticks along the roads are French ones (white and red). Swiss ones are white and black.

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Quotes

George Lonegan: Sometimes, I mean you know, knowing everything about someone, uhhh, its, uh, it seems nice, but really, maybe it's-it's actually better to hold stuff back.

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Crazy Credits

The mid 80s-late 90s Warner Bros. shield is used (in black and white) at the beginning of the movie and at the end of the credits. The same Warner Bros. Shield is used alongside the Amblin logo, also in black-and-white.

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Connections

Featured in Late Show with David Letterman: Matt Damon/My Morning Jacket (2010)

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Soundtracks

Che Gelida Manina
(1896)
from "La Bohème"
Written by Giacomo Puccini
Performed by Thomas Harper
Courtesy of Naxos
By Arrangement with Source/Q

User Reviews

Slow Pace- with unfulfilling and ambiguous story

The pacing of this film did not bother me. Of course, I am over 50, so I can actually sit still through a slower paced storyline that includes a number of different characters, without something blowing up, or someone getting undressed to keep my attention.

What did bother me, perhaps comes from a unique view from others reviewing the film. As one who has experienced an NDE, I was disappointed with both the flimsy, and undeveloped view of the female lead's experience, and the ambiguous way in which her story unfolded.

On one hand, we have a character whose NDE was so life-altering, as to divert her from her primary job as a political reporter, into someone who writes a book extolling the difficulty in revealing the truth in the modern media world about the validity of the NDE experience. The dust jacket on her book, as well as casual references to her research, talk about all of the expert testimony that support the overwhelming facts about NDE experiences, and the correlation between science and the afterlife. And then…the movie tells us nothing.

The script (or perhaps what was left after Eastwood edited the script) simply glosses over anything substantial in the way of research, except to talk about a Nobel laureate who was ridiculed after revealing his research. One line...out of over two and a half hours of script.

The question to me, is why start the conversation, if you aren't going to offer even a small slice of the answers? The research is voluminous. Those of us who have experienced an NDE know that it is far more than a chemical reaction to the body starting to shut down. Much more.

But, all we are left with in this movie, is a lead character who doesn't want to acknowledge his gift, even in the face of those around him who believe in a "hereafter," more than he does.

Anyone who has experienced an NDE will find this movie sadly unfulfilling. But perhaps, it will bring many more of us to admit to what happened, and start a much more meaningful dialogue about the facts.

As a few of the younger reviewers mentioned, a vast majority of the audience was over 50. No doubt many of those there were looking for answers about the "aferlife," for one reason or another.

It would have been a great chance to tell the world something substantial. But in the end the movie was a nice idea, with slow execution...and painfully unfulfilling.

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [Germany] Warner Bros. [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French German

Release Date:

22 October 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hereafter

Filming Locations:

Maui, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$220,322, 17 October 2010

Gross USA:

$32,746,941

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$106,956,330

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Malpaso Productions, The Kennedy/Marshall Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1