Eastwood’s “Hereafter” Offers More Questions Than Answers
Original 11.16.10
[Originally posted on SWIFT, November 16, 2010]
Whatever gets you through your life ,’salright, ‘salright.
Do it wrong or do it right, ‘salright, ‘salright
Don’t need a watch to waste your time, oh no, oh no.
— John Lennon
In “Hereafter,” Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial outing, three characters explore the impact of death — or near-death — on their lives. George Lonegan (Matt Damon) is a construction worker who, thanks to a brain trauma suffered early in his life. possesses mediumistic abilities — or at least, believes he does. Marie LeLay (Cécile de France) is a French television journalist who, accidentally caught up in a tsunami tidal wave, suffers a near-death experience. And a London schoolboy, Jason, is killed in an accident, leaving his surviving twin brother Marcus (the boys are played interchangeably by both George and Frankie McLaren), to try to survive on his own.
