October 23, 2010 -- Clint Eastwood's latest film, “Hereafter” is a good deal less depressing, and therefore less admired among the critical elite, than recent Eastwood wrist-cutting-inducing-downers like “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby.” This film is very much like those other two recent Eastwood films in structure and pacing. The main difference is that it has a more upbeat ending, an unforgivable sin in some critical circles. There is also an unusually large chasm between audience ratings (83 on a scale of 100), and the top critic average of 56 on a scale of 100 (according to Metacritic.com) for this film. I'm sort of in the middle on this one with a rating of 75.

This is one of those films that has a story structure like “Crash” with separate threads that all come together at the end. The central character is George Lonegan (played by Matt Damon of the “Bourne” movies). George is a genuine psychic who can communicate with dead people. He has decided his ability is a curse rather than a gift. He has gotten out of the lucrative medium business to become an ordinary laborer. When he is laid off from his job, he thinks about getting back into his old business.

Meanwhile Marie (played by Cecile De France of “Avenue Montaigne”) a successful French TV reporter has a near-death experience in a tsunami in Thailand. She begins looking into the phenomenon of near-death experiences as a way of dealing with her memories. Marcus, a young boy in London begins research into mediums after his brother Jason dies in an accident (the twins are played by Frankie and George McLaren). Their research brings them into contact with George Lonegan. Aside from the tsunami and the accident which kills Jason, there are no other action scenes, or big special effects scenes (even in the afterlife). This is not a fast-moving film (and neither were the overpraised “Mystic River” or “Million Dollar Baby” for that matter) but then all of Eastwood's recent films are slow-paced.

While this film is slow-going, I liked the acting by everyone except Bryce Dallas-Howard, who overplays a ditsy cooking student. I also liked the approach to the afterlife in the film. Mediums are unsavory characters, ranging from harmless charlatans to real nasty social leaches, getting rich off other people's sorrows. I'm reminded in a Bible passage from Leviticus quoted in the recent film and book, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”: “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them ... ” Of course people like George in this film, and the Whoopi Goldberg character in “Ghost” are not portrayed as bad people. George resists the efforts of his greedy brother, (played by Jay Mohr of “Jerry Maguire”) to cash in on his abilities as a medium. George finds his ability has cut him off from other people and he is unable to have a normal life. He is not after money. Damon plays this character so well that you forget what he's doing is impossible, on the same level of absurdity as Nicolas Cage's clairvoyant character in “Next.” If someone were actually able to communicate with the dead, as George does, it would be as astonishing an event as a person teleporting himself to the moon with sheer brainpower, perhaps more so.

With a deliberate pace and some fine performances, this film makes the utterly preposterous seem almost believable. That is quite an achievement in itself. More than that, Eastwood has made this an enjoyable film, which is just as remarkable. This film rates a B.

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