Eternity (2025 | United States | 116 minutes | David Freyne)
It’s the eternal question (pardon the pun), but what happens when we die? Nothing? The best things? The most mundane things? Well, Eternity offers on a more romantic take with every day being your best day ever, but the rub is you have to choose what that means the moment you arrive in the afterlife and no take backs. For Larry Cutler, there’s no question, it means living the life he already had with his beloved wife Joan. One problem, Joan is still alive and he’s not sure how long it’ll take for her to join him despite a cancer diagnosis. With only a week to decide, Larry is having a tough time making a choice because he’d be taking a gamble on whether Joan would agree. If she goes somewhere else, that’s it, he never sees her again. Just as he decides and hopes for the best, he sees his wife and runs back hoping for a blissful reunion. Another snag, Joan’s first husband who’d died very young in the war, has been waiting for her and wants to spend his Eternity with her too. Joan is speechless, reeling from the trip to the afterlife and finding both husbands waiting to whisk her away, things get even more complicated. Now it’s up to her to figure out what Eternity will look like for all three of them.
This movie was charming, a bit silly and highly sentimental. That mixture of ingredients tends to fit my tastes to a tee, but I have my qualms with <i>Eternity</i>. Miles Teller and Elisabeth Olsen put on a great performance with equal parts distress, happiness and old school romance. They played well off each other and none of the interactions felt forced. Even the handsome Callum Turner played his part well, but the real shining star was the relationship between Da’Vine Joy Randolf and Teller. I’ve seen Randolf fill a role with a lot more depth and power than this film’s Anna, but it definitley felt like a decision to play the character straight-forward and unabashed rather than a complete goof or comedy break. The direction they took the two afterlife coordinators in the end was a little weird and unnecessary, almost like the rom-coms of old where every single thing had to be buttoned up with a pretty bow instead of taking the story to its natural conclusion.
The short version of this review: it’s very romantic and if you have a partner and want to pop in little romance this holiday season, then this is a sweet movie to go see.
The longer and more thoughtful review: I don’t want to spoil the ending (I mean it’s pretty obvious from the beginning what’ll happen), however I was really excited about the direction of the story at around the 3/4 mark. A strong, independent woman can find happiness within herself rather than requiring another person to make that happen. Or at the very least value yourself above all else… it’s ok to be selfish about that. This is especially true when you’re deciding on where you’ll be *forever*. Apparently it’s nearly unbearable for the world (or at least this screenwriter) to accept that anyone (man, woman or otherwise) could find happiness without a monogamous romantic partner to be tied to forever. Come on, you’d get to mess around to your heart’s content with the other people around you, find relationships, end them, whatever. But no, I guess it’s *absolutely* necessary to have a romantic partner if you don’t want to live for eternity all alone like a sad little spinster.
I think after watching Elphaba do the same thing and even shove it in Glinda’s face a little (“he doesn’t love you he loves me!”) the other day, this kind of perspective leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Also, the tension in the film is caused by a ticking clock (you only get 2 weeks to decide on your personal Eternity) and the fact that you can never change your mind or some weird Eternity police come find you and throw you back in the place you chose. I had a hard time getting on board with that one.
Eternity is now playing in theaters near you.