Super Frat

Hereafter stars Matt Damon as a retired psychic that has given up using his gift to help people and Cécile De France as a newscaster whose brush with death tunes her into the same kind of power. Clint Eastwood has become quite an amazing director, but be warned, this is Eastwood’s French film. That means, it’s long, slow and very talky. There is a killer opening, very exciting, but things quickly grind to cruising speed until the third act.

(Spoilers)
Damon is a former psychic who doesn’t want to use his gift, but his brother (played by Jay Mohr— Wait a minute, Jay Mohr? How’d he’d get into a Clint Eastwood movie? Man, I want his agent.) wants him to use his power for money. Meanwhile in Europe, a French newscaster has a near death experience that she can’t shake. In England, a boy dies and his twin brother can’t accept his death.

It all eventually comes together, but it takes what feels like forever. Ultimately, the movie is really about a psychic coming to terms with his powers. Eastwood fills us in on all the details of the three main characters. It’s vivid, but slow. (Did I mention it was slow?) The cinematography is pretty breathtaking.

If you’re like me and you need a vampire or robot beating the crap out of each other in every reel, you’ll probably be bored out of your mind except during the opening. The movie kind of sucks you in with the opening, then burns up all its cred and just when you’re ready to take a nap or leave, finally the main characters come together. Even if you do think its boring, you have to acknowledge the craft here. The movie is visual, the characters are real and the story is about people.

I’m a bit torn by the movie. I preferred most of Eastwood’s other films. I thought Invictus was amazing and I don’t like sports movies. Unforgiven is one of my favorites and Gran Torino was a great movie for him to go out on as an actor. I guess I could’ve done with some more special effects or psychic stuff. It just felt like forever until the characters met and I don’t know if their journey was all that interesting.

Still, it has so much to offer. I would say it’s definitely a rental and if you want something more laid back with a European feel, you’ll like it. I give it a 6.5 out of 10 keggers.