Perky romcom asks how do you want to spend your (after)life, and with whom?
Eternity
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller & Callum Turner
Directed by David Freyne
Rated PG-13
In theaters Wednesday, Nov. 26
Where do we go when we die? That question has fueled speculation since the beginning of time, and now we know: We take a train to an afterlife hub, a midpoint waystation where we then choose where we want to spend the rest of our forever.
That’s likely a bit different from what you might have learned in church, but in this clever new comedy, you just go with it.
Things generally run smoothly in Eternity’s afterlife. Until, that is, the recently deceased Joan (Elizabeth Olson, known as Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel movie universe) arrives, just on the heels of her late husband, Larry (Miles Teller, from Whiplash). And guess who else is there, working as the hub’s bartender? It’s Luke (Callum Turner), the Korean War vet to whom Joan was married decades before Larry.
The hereafter romantic triangle plays out against a backdrop of afterlife rules and regulations. For instance, once you choose an afterlife, that’s it, the door closes. If you decide your afterlife destination isn’t really for you, well, too bad. We learn that you arrive in the afterlife at whatever “age” you were the happiest, regardless of how old you were when you expired. And it’s for everyone; there’s no heaven or hell, as such. “Everybody gets an eternity,” says Anna, Larry’s saucy A.C., or Afterlife Coordinator (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who almost steals the show.) “The good, the bad and the ugly.”
The afterlife in Eternity is a bustling place. It has entertainment by celebrity impersonators, upscale hotel rooms, and halls of memories where you can revisit everything that happened in your life. Exhibits and hawkers promote different forever destinations, like an endless travel convention. Almost anywhere you want to go, whatever your interest, you can spend eternity doing it in various recreated realms, or “worlds,” including ones that cater to whatever religious beliefs you hold dear. There are brochures and TV spots to help you choose between the nearly limitless options, like Smoking World (“Because cancer can’t kill you twice”) or 1930s Germany World (“Now with 100% less Nazis”).
Eternity is a mix of zippy metaphysical satire and humor that’s a bit less sublime (like the joshes about Larry’s renewed manhood, or another character’s experiments in bisexuality). It even gets a chuckle from a quick bit about a 9-year-old boy killed in a hit-and-run. You almost expect Ted Danson to stroll in from The Good Place. But it’s rooted in a predicament of the heart, one quite common in the realm of the living: Choosing a mate, a lover, the person you want to share your life…or your eternity. Love can be complicated, with the laws of attraction matted and messy and confusing. Can you love more than one person, for different reasons, at the same time? Will Joan choose to rekindle the youthful passions cut short by the premature death of Luke, almost 70 years ago, or continue in the afterlife with Larry, the grandfather their grandkids?
It’s no surprise the closing credits scroll to Dean Martin crooning “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.”
It won’t win any Oscars, but it could be a sweet little side dish to your Thanksgiving. If you’ve been yearning for a zesty afterlife romcom that makes you laugh, makes you think, tugs at your heartstrings and sends you home with a satisfied smile, well, here’s an answer to your prayers.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 