Best quality of movies: 2011-01-09

It’s almost Halloween, so I was in the mood for something a little creepy that wasn’t actually scary. Hereafter seemed to fit the bill. What could be creepier than a psychic Matt Damon and a few haunted people? At the same time, it didn’t seem gimmicky or scary.Hereafter turned out to be a very interesting movie, but I nonetheless didn’t think it was all that great.

Hereafter is interesting in that it’s like watching three separate movies for most of the film. Each of the main characters has their own complete story before their paths cross in the third act. I like this because Marie, Marcus, and George do need each other, and we can see that they do, and that their current life isn’t working out for them. However, it was also distracting. The three stories intertwined without the characters meeting until the end – right as you were getting into one character’s story, it would switch to another. It did this throughout the whole movie until the characters actually met and their story became one.

Matt Damon was great as George. Every scene he was in, you could feel his pain. Being psychic has caused him nothing but problems, and his own brother exploits him. His powers even get in the way of a relationship with a woman he really likes. George’s obsession with Charles Dickens is kind of adorable; he lights up like a child on Christmas when it’s brought up. It’s also a little sad because that obsession seems to be the only pleasant thing he has in his life. It’s obvious that George is conflicted as well; being psychic causes him pain, but it also hurts him to not help people. Putting himself first does not come easily to him.

Cecile De France plays Marie LeLay. So much of her performance is yelling that it seems a little forced. She yells at her boyfriend, at book publishers – at pretty much everyone. However, hers is the story that links everyone together. Marie comes back from the dead after her wannabe rescuers give up on her. The hereafter haunts her, and she wants to get her story out to the world, but is met with a lot of resistance. That’s where a lot of the yelling comes in. Marie is definitely curious and driven to make sure people know facts, and that comes through well. I just could have done with a little less yelling.

Twins Frankie and George McLaren seem to both be credited with being twins Marcus and Jason. There were only two ways to tell the twins apart in the movie – Jason loved to talk, and Jason wore a baseball cap. Marcus, who was always quiet to begin with, is just completely devastated after Jason dies, especially since that’s when his mother decided to check herself into rehab, leaving Marcus on his own. I was impressed with the emotion that Marcus displayed on screen. It very much came across as a little boy who lost his twin brother and best friend and would do anything to get him back if given the chance. I don’t know which McLaren twin pulled it off, and maybe they both did. The peformance was impressive, and I hope to see more of these boys in the future.

The point where the characters finally do meet is when I became fully invested in the movie. It was by pure accident, and each character had different purposes for being where they were, but they were just inexplicably drawn together. Only the relationship between George and Marcus makes sense, though. It’s clear that they need each other, even if that’s only obvious to one of them. I’m not as big a fan of the relationship between George and Marie, which almost feels like it was there just so the characters could meet and make everything make sense. I was hoping for something different between George and Marie, but that never came to be.

Overall, Hereafter is an interesting movie, but I would definitely wait to rent it. It’s easy to get distracted, and almost right when the movie pulls you in, it ends. I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t at least get nominated for awards, because it was original and well-told, but it’s not a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Synopsis: A supernatural thriller centered on three people -- a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy -- who are touched by death in different ways.[Less]

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]

Running Time: 2 hr. 6 min.

In Theaters: Oct 22, 2010 Wide

US Box Office:$32.7M