A One Mann’s Movies review of “Eternity” (2025, 4*, 15).
Hollywood has had a few goes at depicting the “Undiscovered Country from which no traveller returns”. David Niven of course went there in the 1946 Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger classic “A Matter of Life and Death”. And a personal favourite of mine was the wonderful 1978 fantasy “Heaven Can Wait” with Warren Beatty, James Mason and a radiantly beautiful Julie Christie. This film was itself a remake of the 1941 film “Here Comes Mr. Jordan” starring Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains. Now we have a quirky 2025, A24-produced upgrade with “Eternity” and it proves to be a tear-jerking delight.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Elderly man Larry (Barry Primus) dies and arrives in the afterlife as his younger self (now Miles Teller). He has just a week to select from the buffet of choices of how to spend eternity. But, his wife Joan (Betty Buckley ==> Elizabeth Olsen) is hot on his heels and his eternal happiness seems assured. There’s only one problem: Joan’s dashing first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), is also there waiting for her.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong sex”. A really curious decision by the BBFC, for reasons discussed below.)
Talent:
Starring: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Betty Buckley, Barry Primus, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, John Early, Olga Merediz.
Directed by: David Freyne.
Written by: Patrick Cunnane & David Freyne.
Running Time: 1h 54m.
Summary:
Positives:
- A clever and engaging script that surprises and amuses.
- Delightful performances from Olsen, Teller and Turner.
- A satisfying ending.
Negatives:
- Some aspects of the plot that need to be taken with a strong pinch of salt.
- The poster is awful!
Full Review of “Eternity”:
A clever premise.
This film shares an unlikely link with the risible “Dear Santa” in that it is based on a genuinely clever premise. It makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before!
You remember the ending of “Titanic”? The 100-year-old Rose dies and goes to a Titanic-themed afterlife where Leo DiCaprio’s Jack is waiting for her at the top of the staircase. If you were like me, you exclaimed “HANG ON A MINUTE! Rose has lived a whole lifetime of marriage, children and grandchildren and yet when she dies who does she meet…. the guy she knew for just 24 hours and had a sweaty bonk with in the back seat of a car!”
That’s the basic premise here… that few lives are linear from A to B and if you really do meet in a sort of heaven those that have previously passed, how do the complexities of a lifetime of relationships get sorted out?
Where this differs from “Dear Santa” is that the clever premise is actually delivered with style and panache. The script buzzes with clever content, especially in the presentation (via a sort of hellish trade-show floor) of the many different Eternity options that Larry and Joan can choose from.
Truman is dead?
In “Heaven Can Wait”, heaven’s ‘holding room’ is an all-white mist-filled void, arrived at via a pristine all-white Concorde. “Eternity” ups the production values by having the equivalent facility as a station terminal where confused arrivals (“I guess the surgery didn’t go so well”) are processed by their “ACs” (Afterlife coordinators) before boarding their next train, at one of hundreds of platforms, to their ‘Final Destination”.
But the terminus is a curiously tacky globe with clunkily changed theatre backdrops for the outside sky. It’s like a tacky version of “The Truman Show” Seahaven set. There is a great deal of background production design in these sets with a lot of funny detail to observe and enjoy. Watch out for the movie-related auction houses in months to come selling off a lot of very attractive lots!
Olsen shines.
I am a very big fan of Elizabeth Olsen who seems to shine in everything she does: from brilliant indie films like “Wind River” through her marvellous turn as Wanda/Scarlett Witch through to one of my favourite films of the 2024 LFF – “The Assessment“, which I note has very quietly been dumped onto Prime Video as a streaming only offering (which strikes me as a major crime!) Here she carries the emotion of the film brilliantly as the girl desperately struggling to make an impossible choice between two men that she has loved.
Those two men are also well-played by the underrated Miles Teller and Callum Turner, the latter newly heavily-tipped as the new James Bond: we will see!
Elsewhere, Oscar-winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early provide comic relief as Larry and Joan’s assigned ACs.
An indecisive nightmare!
However good Olsen is at playing her, Joan comes across as incredibly indecisive: someone who would be an utter nightmare to take shoe-shopping; you’d need to clear your diary for the whole day! The script also requires a little bit of suspension of belief, particularly in the finale where the ineptitude of heaven’s security service seems unbelievable!
But while some aspects of the story are a tad predictable, the ending is suitably touching and satisfying. I should add that the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man found this movie very emotional and was in floods of tears for the majority of the film. I, on the other hand, was a hard-arsed emotional desert and the story didn’t really move me in this way. But if you are of an emotional bent, you might want to take tissues.
Strong sex? Really?
The usually excellent BBFC normally gets its classifications pretty well spot on most of the time. But here is a film where I fundamentally disagree with their assessment. The “strong sex” is a scene without graphic detail, in a very loving environment and with only a tiny bit of non-specific thrusting. I would have NO problem with my older grandkids (aged 10 and 9) with watching this film. The fact that the MPAA in the US, normally a lot more prurient than the BBFC, have gone with only a PG-13 rather than an R is also a telling statement. Rethink this please BBFC!
Summary Thoughts:
There are films over the year that fit well into the category of “warm and comfortable”. Examples that come to mind are “Field of Dreams”, “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Pleasantville”. I think “Eternity” will also sit alongside those as films that will be beloved and enjoyed by an appreciative audience for many years to come. Highly recommended.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXTps1REHU.
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