PG-13 | 1h 52m | Rom-com | 2025
There’s a fairly long list of movies that comedically portray the afterlife as a humdrum bureaucratic system with various celestial departments having mailrooms, accounts receivable, janitorial elements, and the like. “Made in Heaven” (1987) depicts a heavenly waystation where souls are processed, and “Soul” (2020), has the afterlife as a cosmic bureaucracy where new souls are prepared for Earth.
“Eternity” posits the concept that human souls get to choose from from a variety of options on how they spend their afterlife. They can spend them however and with whomever we choose, but they need to read the fine print. That’s the comedic hook for this high-concept romantic-triangle comedy. It’s not brilliant, but it’s a rather enjoyable romcom.
Torn Between Two Lovers
After choking to death on a pretzel, Larry (Miles Teller) wakes up on a train bound for a terminus where he waits for his wife, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), before deciding how to spend their afterlife together. Larry and Joan were married for 65 years, and die a week apart. In the afterlife way-station of “Eternity,” every soul has a week to decide who to spend the rest of eternity with, and where.
So, Joan has to make a choice. Will it be the passionate first love with Luke? Or the steadfastness she found with Larry, along with all the great shared memories they have of raising a family together? While she decides, Luke and Larry, now relegated to suitor status, bicker and fight and go all out to woo her, with amusing results. If you really put your mind to it, you can probably figure it out, but “Eternity” gets you to that eternal choice with a fair amount of fun.
Performances
Olsen, Teller, and Turner are very charming. What’s more, none of the three actors are known for comedic roles, and “Eternity” gives them a chance to show their comedy chops. As is the case with the vast majority of world-class actors, they can all put on the smiley mask as easily as they can put on the frown mask. That said, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early, playing Joan and Larry’s “A.Cs” (Afterlife Counselors), upstage the main actors any time they share the screen.Director David Freyne leans into the fun visuals of the afterlife, as well as the gags involving advertisements for different eternities on display, since most of them are meant to make you chuckle.
This endless divesting of heavenly topics of their mystery and glory is also sad. People used to take the time to pray for lost souls. Now we trap, blast, and exterminate them via “Ghostbusters.” That’s all well and good and funny. But the more we watch and re-watch things of a heavenly nature reduced to chuckles and snickers, the more we practice non-belief.
Ok, that’s enough sanctimony for today. See “Eternity.” At least it’s more hopeful than other things currently out there.
