Directed By David Freyne

Starring – Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner

The Plot – In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between Larry, the man she spent her life with (Teller), and her first love, Luke (Turner), who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong adult language.

Eternity | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

A24 has carved out a reputation for being an experimentally ambitious studio that seeks out these complex scripts on familiar themes, and while “Eternity” can essentially be stripped down to being just another love triangle romantic comedy, complete with an abundance of trope motions and familiar supporting characterization, it receives a refreshing shuffling on account of Freyne’s thoroughly detailed direction towards fleshing out such a unique depth to his world-building of the afterlife, without any of the heaviness of the tragedy that has overcome so many of its characters. In his third feature length film, Freyne atmospherically conjures the essence of 60’s golden age romances, complete not only by a colorfully vibrant and warmly intoxicating presentation, which feels very welcoming and immersive to the fish out of water audience that live and breathe through Larry’s experiences, but also the whimsical approach to atmosphere that feels mere minutes away from breaking into musical form, on account of the cheery and charming exuberance that instantly hooks audiences into the plight of conflicting cross-generational love coming to a crossroads. While the film is undoubtedly a romantic comedy in its labeling, there is a profound sense of loss and longing to Freyne’s direction that conjures ample heart and personality to both of the men in Joan’s life, as well as a three-dimensional emotionality that takes the evolution of its story miles, despite some unavoidable paths to predictability that mostly keeps the journey with these characters grounded. The afterlife itself is full of fascinatingly unique concepts and procedures that make it feel authentically possible to something that legitimately exists as an opportunity waiting for us on the other side of this mortal coil, and with subtly registering humor on account of several clever sight gags, meaningful memories that can be experienced once more like lost family videos, and a fully-fledged scope that expands far into the versatility of these resting places within this world, the film effortlessly engages the audience into wanting to spend every waking minute of the 107-minute runtime persisting casually within such a fascinating place, where repetition and redundancy steer far away from Freyne’s never-ending think tank conveying the time and creative energy that went towards bringing such an imaginative place to the screen. However, just as radiant as Freyne’s direction and overall influence to the presentation, the film equally shines in the grasp of so many meaningful performances within its stacked ensemble, featuring heavy lifting in the supporting roles from Oscar winner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and John Early appraising so much intoxicating charisma and impeccable comedic timing, to the commanding magnetism elicited from the decorated trio of Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner, without a single weak link among them. While Randolph and Early nearly steal this film, as a result of the overarching commentary that they supplant to such a messy situation in this love triangle, that only grows more eagerly urgent in every passing moment, the versatility of chemistry deposited between each pocketed romantic dynamic can’t be touched for connective sentiments, with Teller and Olsen’s bickering banter seamlessly emulating a married couple whom have spent every waking minute of 67 years with each other, while Olsen and Turner’s feel tenderly tepid, on account of the time spent apart from one another, since the latter’s untimely passing. Together, each of the time spent with these intersecting couples convey insight and experience into the moments of their pasts that we’re only able to experience in small doses within the film, but individually there’s such a sense of kinetic energy and meticulous articulation to the performances of Teller and Olsen, particularly, that are crafted to replicate the personalities and demeanor of their elderly counterparts during the film’s opening moments, a move executed with actual older actors, rather than simply just splashing aging make-up to the familiar likenesses of his leads. Because of such, Teller’s deliveries are intentionally a lot more gruff and crotchety than we’re used to seeing from the “Top Gun: Maverick” prodigy, and Olsen, while channeling a far more eager zaniness and tender trepidation than her time as the powerfully dominating Scarlett Witch, in Marvel’s Avengers movies, feels practically lifted from the aforementioned golden age of cinema, where her heart-skipping smile and gentle sensibilities could easily be lifted from a Clark Gable or Cary Grant movie. As for technical components, everything effectively influences the inviting presentation towards such an immense scope in setting, but it’s ultimately David Fleming’s emerging score that is most memorable to the engagement, particularly in how his compositions mirror the evolving emotionality of the movie’s characters. Fleming is already having a great year scoring James Gunn’s “Superman”, but here he subdues the epic grandeur of the Man of Steel for more of a sentimentally stirring series of compositions underlining these reunions with affectionate longing, and while his themes never compromise the integrity of the subtly effective humor that is first and foremost driving Freyne’s direction, it does offer a profoundly touching cadence that warms the heart during the high stakes of the third act, with far more dependency upon him than the first two acts of the film.

NEGATIVES

As previously indicted, like most romantic comedies, “Eternity” is painfully predictable in the set-up, evolution, and resolution of its long-distance narrative, which keeps so much originality in concepts grounded for the strings of familiarity that make themselves feel glaringly evident in the execution that does very little to conceal them properly. While it’s one thing to have familiar trope characters such as the token black character unloading sassiness, or even the androgenous male character quipping it up within the scenery, it’s much worse when the vital moments of the development within this screenplay can’t balance these couples out in ways that make it difficult to properly telegraph just who will win Joan’s heart in the end, with a complete lack of time paid to her dynamic with Larry, that pales in comparison to her time spent with Luke. It’s obvious enough that the movie goes out of its way to flesh out Luke as this perfect specimen who physically and empathetically represents every woman’s dream man, but it’s much worse when the script introduces aspects to Larry’s character, then never follows through with them, such as his lack of encouragement to relive his own memories with Joan, and whether intentional or not, it never threw so much as even a temporary curveball in the air of my expectations, allowing the film to fall into the same kind of conformity consistent with so many of the other romantic comedies that are painfully interchangeable with one another. Aside from the predictability factor, my only other issue with the film, and ultimately one that keeps it from touching directors like Charlie Kaufman or Albert Brooks, who are channeled so apparently in the execution of this film, is that the script never goes all the way with the allure of its ambition, evoking a persistent playfulness to the film’s overall demeanor, rather than openly embracing the messy kinds of philosophy that could’ve sampled more dramatic depth to the film’s climax. Such an example exists in the surface level introduction of this memory booth, where characters can relive the most pivotal moments of their lives. While those moments involved never deviate away from what’s expected in each of the characters involved, it ultimately leaves the negative moments too few and far between, so as not to compromise the sweetly saccharine or zany zestiness of the humor that dominates the movie’s ingredients, choosing instead to speak to the unrealistic fantasy that is life being a series of uplifting moments, even in its most tribulating.

OVERALL
“Eternity” is a sugary sweet and charmingly romantic ride into the afterlife, that imaginatively assembles so much creativity and commentary to the depths of its expansive world-building, even at the cost of poignantly dramatic underlining that persists so evidently in the material. Despite this, the film’s heart and magic are on full display, as a result of David Freyne’s immersive direction, and the cast’s constantly committed efforts to bringing these characters to life (Sorta speak), surmising a sensational spectacle that fits comfortably into the ever-growing A24 library.

My Grade: 7.9 or B