Movie Review: Eternity

A lot of interesting movies stem from ideas that would make for great, if not somewhat tense, conversation starters, like for instance Eternity, written by Pat Cunnane and David Freyne and directed by the latter. Imagine a situation in which you arrive in the afterlife to find both of your husbands (or wives), one who died young and the other much older, still madly in love with you, and you, who loves each of them, being forced to decide which you want to spend forever with. It’s a potentially impossible choice that could inspire some lively discussion, though perhaps best avoided when your current partner is around, and it’s exactly where Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) finds herself here.

One week after her second husband choked to death on some pretzels, Joan succumbs to the cancer she was keeping secret from their adult children. In the world of Eternity, one is then taken via train to a central “Hub” in which countless sales agents try to convince new arrivals to sign up for one of the different “Eternities” they each represent, the sales floor surrounded by a towering hotel complex one stays in while deciding. Each world offers plusses and minuses, and with the decision being permanent it’s a lot of pressure to choose the right one. Thankfully, each new soul is assigned an Afterlife Coordinator (A.C.) to help them navigate the process.

As soon as Joan steps foot into the main atrium, her second husband Larry (Miles Teller) sees her and they excitedly greet. He hadn’t yet gone to his final destination, afraid that he might miss her, and so he and his A.C. Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) quickly fill her in on how things work. Of course, even in the afterlife nothing is simple, and her first husband Luke (Callum Turner) arrives on the scene with his A.C. Ryan (John Early), who also has a romantic history with Anna and is assigned to Joan. After being killed in the Korean War, Luke waited 67 years for her, taking a job in the Hub so as to be allowed to stay past the 7-day maximum each soul is otherwise allowed, longing for their reunion.

With deep feelings for each man, Joan is understandably overwhelmed and heads off to her room to think alone. But Anna and Ryan each want to see their respective clients win, and of course said clients each want Joan to pick them, and she is limited to a week, so she can’t reflect on her own for long. It’s a great set-up that allows for an entertaining mix of relatably funny dialogue and genuinely moving moments as it heads towards an ending that keeps viewers on their toes.

Olsen is superb, capturing Joan’s swirl of grief, longing, and indecision, while Teller and Turner are both believably worthy of her affections. But Early and especially Randolph steal every scene they’re in, earning the majority of the film’s laughs as they guide their clients and us through the rules of the movie’s universe. If they ever wanted to make a spin-off series featuring those two mentoring new arrivals each week ala Fantasy Island I would gladly tune in.

Freyne directs with resourceful flair, conjuring a retro, large-scale afterlife on a modest budget. The script has a roller-coaster energy, though its beats occasionally feel familiar. Fortunately, it’s funny, thought-provoking, and romantic enough to overcome that slight flaw (and realistically, there aren’t many new places for this kind of story to go). It’s nice to see rom-coms still periodically making it to movie theaters, and even nicer when they are as charmingly entertaining as Eternity. ★★★★