Eternity ★★★

Larry (Barry Primus) and Joan (Betty Buckley) are on their way to a gender reveal party for one of their grandchildren, an event that has the couple who have spent 65 years together bickering. Larry does not see the point in such a party, while Joan laments that he just “enjoys being miserable.” By the time they get there, they are focused on celebrating the occasion and concealing Joan’s terminal cancer diagnosis, as she hopes for just one more family event where her health is not the focus. Unfortunately, she will get her wish, just not in the way she expected. As everyone is gathered around and chatting about a photo of Joan’s first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who died in the Korean War, Larry chokes on a pretzel and dies. Director David Freyne’s Eternity follows what happens next as a much younger Larry (Miles Teller) appears in the afterlife – as the film explains, a person’s looks in the afterlife match when they were happiest in life – arriving on a train to a central hub where “afterlife coordinators” are flitting about and confused recently deceased people wander around waiting for someone to give them some guidance.

With a healthy dose of A Matter of Life and Death and plenty of Defending Your Life influence, Eternity offers a fun and often inventive spin on what life after death could look like. With plenty of the sentimentality and the rigid and comical bureaucracy of its influences, Eternity presents an afterlife where one must make a big decision. It takes a while, but Larry is eventually tracked down by Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), his afterlife coordinator, who is there to guide him through this next phase of existence. As she explains, he can stay in this place for a week – in a hotel-like room – before he must decide on an “eternity.” An eternity is basically an afterlife theme park with the catch that one must spend the rest of eternity there and anyone who dares to escape is sent into the “void”, an eternally black world of nothingness for the rest of time. 

Eternity fills the background with pamphlets and convention-like events where the recently deceased are sold on which eternity to choose. There is “Beach World”, “Man Free World”, a world for every major religion, “Mountain World”, more vanilla worlds like one that would resemble a simple suburban life, and many more. It is a big decision and it is complicated by the fact that Larry is here alone. He knows Joan will be coming soon, but where will she want to go? Should he try to wait (Anna does offer an alternative, but it would require Larry to get a job and sleep in the meager staff quarters in this initial purgatory-esque place)? Fortunately for Larry, he is mostly let off-the-hook as once he decides to head to “Beach World”, he sees a much younger Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) arriving from the afterlife train station.

Joan’s afterlife coordinator Ryan (John Early) gets to her quick and while Joan is a bit foggy, she immediately knows she is dead and this is the afterlife – a reality that as Anna notes, “took Larry a while to figure out” – while Larry is eager to pin her down on what is next for them. However, everything is thrown into disarray when Luke walks into the picture. He died in Korea, waited 65 years in purgatory, and is ready to start the life he never had the chance to have with Joan. Armed with pick-up lines and sweet nothing’s like a man out of a romantasy novel, Luke has Ryan and Anna alike swooning and Joan overwhelmed with the reality standing before her. Poor Larry sees the situation slipping away, desperately trying to get Joan’s attention back and focused on where they will spend eternity.

Eternity, for the most part, is a love triangle. After the initial chaos, Joan has a simple decision for herself: spend eternity with her husband of 65 years Larry or spend eternity with her first husband Luke who she never forgot. There are technically some alternatives – they could spend eternity as a group, but neither Larry nor Luke want that, while Joan could opt out entirely and spend eternity somewhere else, perhaps with her friend Karen (Olga Merediz) who also just died – but Eternity is focused on this unique conundrum. It is an admittedly underwhelming focus. As one longs for a greater exploration of this afterlife world beyond the brief snippets used as background jokes – Eternity really shines when Larry and Luke step away from their romantic competition and just walk around this afterlife world, watching in marvel as it hums about and its mysterious ways unfold before their eyes – forcing the film into being a simple love triangle is disappointing. It especially drags as Joan tries to make her decision, though excursions to different worlds with her husbands – a rare trial period is afforded to her by the bureaucratic apparatus behind the afterlife – offer plenty of color and vitality, especially with the “Archives” that echo the Past Lives Pavillion from Defending Your Life, except solely focused on this one lifetime. Eternity drags as it struggles through Joan’s indecision and it is a bit too long, seemingly trying to figure out how to end itself much like Joan is trying to decide which husband to be with for eternity.

And yet, it is not hard to be taken with Eternity. It may just be scratching the surface of its potential, but what is here is fascinating and thought-provoking. It is life affirming and heartwarmingly sentimental, a celebration of life, memories, and what really matters in life. At the core of this love triangle is a question for Joan over whether she wants to explore the life she could have led (with Luke) or to spend eternity in the life she led and loved (with Larry). It has numerous heart-tugging scenes of her trying to come up with an answer, of these two men she loved sacrificing themselves and their happiness for her to feel satisfied with her final choice, and of Joan herself trying to connect with what made her life feel worthwhile. Eternity also benefits from being very funny. Its background afterlife gags are quite good – whether the pamphlets or little details like a curtain that changes from day to night – while its wry and sharp script gets plenty of laughs out of its unusual setup. The deadpan delivery and terrific timing of its cast works wonders with Miles Teller’s everyman, Callum Turner’s Prince Charming, and Elizabeth Olsen’s fed up woman in the middle being a rewarding setup with plenty of jokes about life, individuals, and love that make one laugh over the relatability and truthfulness. Eternity has a few larger comedic bits, like a Dean Martin impersonator (David Z. Cohen) that is hysterical, but it really shines in the interpersonal comedy and in the chemistry of its cast, delivering a consistently funny and touching experience.

Though Eternity has its flaws, it is hard to not get swept up by its earnest emotional sweep. Director David Freyne creates a world brimming with color and high-concepts that mostly pays off in the end, benefitting from its great mise en scène that brings the afterlife to life, its charming cast who make one laugh and cry in equal measure, and its sharp script that not only crafts good one-liners but condenses its large, heady package into something cohesive and relatable. It may not reach the heights of A Matter of Life and Death or Defending Your Life, but Eternity is a pleasing cinematic confection.