Maybe it’s rose tinted view but couples probably do marry for eternity, well life anyway, but every marriage isn’t without its ups and downs as our own Editor knows only too well after one particular evening when he told his wife that there were plenty more fish in the sea only for her to tell him that, ‘there’s better bait too!’ But Eternity sees wife Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) long time married to her second husband Larry (Miles Teller) now an elderly couple attending that modern nonsense, the gender reveal party, that sees Larry choke on a pretzel and die – some people will do anything to get out of such occasions.
But Larry awakes at a kind of retro celestial convention centre that sees AC’s (Afterlife Consultants) assist you in deciding what Eternity you want to reside in forever. It’s one of the films many neat twists that these eternities are many and varied and include Beach World, Cowboy World and even a Men Free World. But each new arrival only has seven days to choose and once their World is chosen they can never leave it and any attempts to do so will see them cast into the ‘void’- a sort of ethereal version of joining the Labour party . Fortunately for Larry his wife joins him shortly after he has arrived but unfortunately for him so is Joan’s first husband Luke (Callum Turner) a soldier killed in the Korean war who has been waiting for her for decades. So who will she pick to spend Eternity with?
As a three hander each actor plays their roles exquisitely well and the script co-written by director David Freyne is delightful with nods to, ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, Frank Capra’s films and even ‘Brief Encounter’, at least certainly for the first two acts which are often moving and insightful with ideas to reflect upon often with a melancholy undertone that’s lightened by the comic pairing of John Early & Da’Vine Joy Randolph in her best role for quite some years as the men’s AC’s.
It’s a third act that slows the pace down and swerves the chance of a bolder ending opting instead but then it could be studio pressure to go for the ending that is used despite breaking the rules of its own (and very clever) world building. But with the modern trend for stage versions of films this would be ideal.
related feature : ‘True Romance’ – LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY / UHD / DVD / STEELBOOK
related feature : ‘Dreamers’ – director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor chats about her immigrant detainee love story
Here’s the Eternity trailer….
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