It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This film opens with a harrowing recreation of the Tsunami that devastated Indonesia in 2004. Then for the next hour and forty-five minutes it just circles the drain. What bothered me most though was the bastardization of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto (second movement) used as a motif for the boy's story. The intro is a note for note copy/plagerism of this famous composition; then an altered Rachmaninov melody wanders around aimlessly until the boy's scene is over, which ultimately ends up nowhere; much like the rest of this film. On second thought, good match Clint!

This is good movie. Great story line and delivery, good acting. Except for the woman playing Matt Damon's cooking class love interest. I didn't bother looking up her name. I hope to never see her again. Her empty personality while ending every sentence in a school girl giggle and whiny voice along with her emaciated face and body were exceptionally disturbing to the flow of the story and resulted in my uncharacteristic desire to see her character die a horrible death for being the whiny pushy person her character was. "Pleeeeaaseee" Oh, please. Anyway, other than this, the movie is truly good. I can never rewatch it simply for her role in it. Be prepared.

By no means is Clint Eastwood a flashy director. As evidenced by films like "Gran Torino" & "Million Dollar Baby", Eastwood prefers gritty, emotional human drama over contrived drama any day of week. However, with "Hereafter", Eastwood fails to instill even the most basic amount of drama to make us care about the storyline and main characters in any meaningful way.For a basic plot summary, "Hereafter" splits its focus on three different, seemingly unrelated events involving a retired psychic (Matt Damon), a French journalist puzzling over a near-death experience (Cecile de France), and a young child desperate to speak to the "great beyond" (Frankie McLaren). Of course, those events turn out to be not quite as unrelated as they seem.While not a glaringly bad film by any means (Eastwood would never quite sink that low), this film fails to impress for two reasons:First, it doesn't develop the characters enough to make the audience truly care about them in the film's climax. Yes, we know things about their recent past and why they act like they do, but it just never feels as if the characters in this film are anything more than pawns in a bigger scheme. As such, it is tough to really "get into it" in the end.Also, when the film does discuss issues of the afterlife, it is far too brief and flirting to ever truly be meaningful. I am a bit disappointed by Eastwood in this regard, as he usually attacks such high-profile issues instead of shrinking from them.Unfortunately, then, "Hereafter" fails to captivate on any high level. It's nowhere in the league of "Baby" or "Torino", and doesn't even live up to its predecessor "Invictus".

I bought a DVD of 'Hereafter' many months ago, as a friend had mentioned to me one day that he had enjoyed watching it in a local Pattaya cinema. To be honest, the title put me off, and I assumed that it was yet another one of those 'spiritual' type stories where people in this world are contacted by or guided by someone in the after-life, along the lines of 'Ghost' (which to be fair was a pretty good movie but is now quite dated), 'What Dreams May Come', 'City of Angels' and so on. Frankly this story line has been done to death and I grow weary of movie producers who insist on regurgitating the same old story lines, rather than give their audiences something original to get their teeth stuck into.Anyway, it was bothering me in my list of 'UNSEEN MOVIES' so I decided to give it a go. I should have known better, as it was produced by that genius of a film director, Clint Eastwood. Who would ever believe that a 'corny' macho, deadpan cowboy actor would transform himself into one of Hollywood's finest ever filmmakers? For me, he has never made a bad movie, from Bridges of Madison County, to 'Mystic River' and the wonderful 'Gran Torino' and of course, he has already received several Oscars, most notably for 'Million Dollar Baby'.'Hereafter' is a great movie, all the more so because almost everyone connected with this movie - from the writers to the director to the actors - has publicly stated that they do not believe in the afterlife. The story is beautifully played out, by a tour de force of actors – especially the two French actors, (Cécile De France and Thierry Neuvic), and Matt Damon in quite possibly his finest role ever. This is not an action or a fantasy movie in the traditional sense, although the horrific opening footage of a tsunami which devastated a South Pacific Resort is truly riveting. It is a beautifully understated, introspective film which explores the characters and lives of the three principal players, who come from totally different walks of life and from different parts of the world: San Francisco, Paris, and London. It is the clever tale of how they became drawn to each other by their varying needs to connect, (or to 'disconnect' in the case of one of them), with the so-called 'hereafter'.It is a well-crafted film and you can't help rooting for these somewhat flawed 'heroes'. The subject matter is dealt with in a manner that neither promotes nor disparages the notion that there is something there in the next life. In the end, we are left to our own deliberations.Yet another masterpiece from Eastwood.The film cost an incredible 50 Million dollars to make, which although the cost is about par for this kind of major Hollywood blockbuster boasting a 'name' actor and director, it does seem to make you wonder where all the money went, other than in the pockets of the people making it.