Hereafter Movie, A Clint Eastwood Film

In the Clint Eastwood movie, Hereafter, Matt Damon plays a gloomy clairvoyant who is attempting to put his special gift of being able to communicate with deceased people behind him. The beginning of the Hereafter movie trailer would seem to suggest a film in which many of the main characters are struggling with grief and mortality, and are seeking solace through Matt Damon’s character, in hopes that he can assist them in finding closure.

The Hereafter Movie was recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and from what I can tell from some of the early reviews of the viewing there, the tsunami that is in the film was a simulated version of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean that devastated Indonesia. In the movie, the tsunami is just one of a bunch of bad things that happen to good people that the movie explores.

Though there are not a lot of details circulating about the plot of Hereafter, early buzz suggests that Clint Eastwood’s film could be contending in the Oscar races in some major categories.

So far, I have not seen any critiques panning the film for using a real life disaster in a fictional movie which appears to be about contemplating the value of ones’ belief or non-belief in the afterlife. In fact, I’m not the type of person who would ever claim that one shouldn’t venture to convey a story prompted by tragedy, no matter how fresh or far removed a real life tragedy might be. I actually think that our most talented artists and story tellers should be taking on current events that may be able to make us think about the modern world around us, the problems we face and the way we all fit into the larger grand scheme of this mortal coil.

With this type of material in the able hands of Clint Eastwood, who has more than earned trust from his peers as well as the movie-going public over the years, the Hereafter movie should expect the benefit of the doubt and a fair amount of interest at the box office. Seeing the tsunami scene in the Hereafter movie trailer reminds me of big budget disaster films like 2012, or The Day After Tomorrow. But with Eastwood at the helm I would venture to say that this is a much deeper film than either of those, and will most likely provoke profound thought, emotion, and discussion about a subject that is rarely spoken about in every day life — the afterlife.

My guess would be that Eastwood’s film offers a great deal more than the typical disaster movie, but of course we can’t confirm that until we hit the theaters this fall to see for ourselves.

The new movie Hereafter, starring Matt Damon & Bryce Dallas Howard. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by Peter Morgan

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