April 6, 2026 – Romantic comedies are so often bad that some people just assume they are all bad, but some are good, and this is one of the good ones.

This absurdist romantic comedy is set in the afterlife. The version of the afterlife in this movie is sort of like Never Never Land, where everybody is like Peter Pan, but without the ability to fly, or die. It is a lot more mundane than that. There are no special effects needed to depict this vision of eternity, because it looks a lot like everyday life in America. It's like a big hotel connected to a train station. It's got a bar, rooms, TV and trains take you on one-way trips to various eternal destinations. There are even people in the afterlife sweeping floors. How would you like to do that forever?

Just like regular life, there are a lot of silly rules. You supposedly have a very short amount of time to figure out where you want to spend eternity (it turns out that is more like a guideline than a rule) and you are supposed to make this eternal decision based on some cheap-looking brochures and TV commercials, not on actual experience, because that is not allowed, normally. Once you choose an eternity, mountains, ocean, city, suburbs, Las Vegas, etc., you have to stay there for eternity. You can't switch to another eternity experience, and you can't die. No matter what you choose, it would almost inevitably turn into an eternity of boredom, ennui, soul crushing hopelessness. In this eternity, there is no exit.

Fortunately, the movie is not really about eternity at all. Instead, it is about the lives of three people and the crazy situation they find themselves in. Larry (played by Miles Teller of “Top Gun Maverick”) has died and gets off the train at the eternity hotel. Soon after he dies, his wife, Joan (played by Elizabeth Olsen of “Wind River”) also dies.

Larry greets Joan at the eternity hotel, but someone else is there to greet her as well, Luke (Callum Turner of “The Boys in the Boat”). Luke is Joan's first husband who died 67 years earlier in the Korean War. Because of the stupid eternity rules (and the attitudes of her husbands) she is forced to choose between the two and she has to choose her eternity destination, too, in a short amount of time, despite the fact that time becomes a lot less important in eternity. It is actually a lot sillier and more complicated than this. I have simplified the narrative and the rules for the sake of brevity.

Luke and Larry don't get along and this helps to put Joan into an impossible choice between two men she loves. At first, it looks as though Larry and Luke are not going to be of any help in this situation, but eventually both of them get to make some decisions too, which is only fair. In addition to these three people there are two others involved in this situation. Both are eternity hotel workers assigned to help newcomers, called afterlife coordinators or AC. Ryan (John Early of “Maddie's Secret”) is Joan's AC and Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph of “The Holdovers”) is Larry's AC.

The afterlife coordinators, Anna and Ryan are supposed to explain things and help their clients move on, but mostly they are just there for comic relief. They are both bored with eternity and are not very interested in the lives of their clients. In this unusual case, however, they become inspired by their interaction with Larry, Joan and Luke, because of all the romance. While most people pick an eternity destination in a week or two, Luke has hung around the hotel as a bartender for 67 years, which is extremely unusual, and romantic.

While Luke is heroic and handsome, Larry is less impressive, but he has been married to Joan for over 60 years, and they have been through a lot together. Joan has a tough choice because of the rules, but there is a twist. Rules are meant to be broken, especially stupid ones. The plot has a number of twists, and it ends up in a fairly satisfying place, despite the absurdity of the situation these three people find themselves in.

I enjoyed this absurdist romantic comedy. Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen both give great performances, and the script, by Pat Cunnane (“Designated Survivor”) and David Freyne (“Dating Amber”) is both clever and imaginative, with its unique twist on a romantic triangle plot. This movie rates a B.

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