Movie Rant 14: Hereafter

Hereafter (2010)


Plot:
"A drama centered on three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George (Damon) is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might-or must-exist in the hereafter."


When I first heard about this movie, I thought "Uh, touchy subject, I must see this! Could be somehow like Ghost Whisperer, or even a little mind-bending like Inception!" Then I heard that Hereafter was also nominated for its visual effects – I was eager to see it then.
I was so terribly wrong.
You know, I watch almost every kind of movie, and it doesn't have to be popcorn cinema to make me like it. So when I realized, after a few minutes into the movie, that Hereafter is more of a drama, a character study, I changed my expectations. Life and Death is indeed a touchy and difficult subject, and since I often think about stuff like that, I waited for philosophical approaches, different opinions, interesting questions.
As you might have already guessed, I didn't really get that.
But let's start at the beginning.
What is good about this movie.

To be frank, the movie isn't doing anything really wrong. The idea of having three different stories that come together in the end is nothing new, and most of the time, it also works pretty well. Let's start with the French journalist. She's at the beach when a huge tsunami approaches. And yes, I can't deny it – that tsunami scene was spectacular. It was very realistic, very shocking, and definitely the best ten minutes of that movie. Now of course, that near-death experience is something that the journalist can't easily overcome, and she's thinking about it so much that she has to take a break from her job. When we look at the story of that woman, the movie shows us that people act very ignorant when it comes to death – they don't want to listen to the journalist, mostly, I think, because death is a topic that frightens people. So we watch her trying to get her message across.
The story of the boy losing his twin brother because of a car accident is pretty simple – he's doing everything to get in contact with his brother again, because he can feel he's still there. He's diving into a world of fake ghost whisperers that use the grief and hope of people for their own good.
And then there's George. He's a real medium, he can get in contact with those who recently passed away. Even just the slightest contact with a living person makes him feel the souls following that person. His brother thinks that this ability is a gift, but George is of course referring to it as a curse. He can't lead a normal life, even when he tries.
Now, of course all those stories are supposed to make you think about death, and also to give you hope and make you enjoy the life you have right now. It wants you to ask yourself some questions. What I really really like about this movie is that it doesn't give answers. We don't even see what George hears and sees when he talks to the ghosts. All those stories could happen in real life, too. Even the medium one could be true, if we believe in such things. So we don't get new answers.

The problem is – we don't really get new questions, either.
It seems like this movie is made for those who really refuse to think about death and the possibility of afterlife at all. Of course being able to talk to the dead without being able to get them out of your head is a curse, of course people are ignorant and stupid when it comes to touchy subjects, no matter which subjects these are, of course we should be happy about the life we have. But seriously, are these and all the other things in this movie groundbreaking new thoughts? You can get all the philosophical approaches in Hereafter also by watching a few episodes of Ghost Whisperer. That would also be more fun to watch, I promise.
Because, and let's face it, this movie is incredibly boring. It's much too long, and since it begins with a great and perfect scene full of action and emotional moments, you always wait for something to happen during the rest of those hours. But instead, you see totally unnecessary scenes of the characters doing random stuff, predictable dialogues and slow pacing. Like I said at the beginning – I like dramas, too. But if this drama isn't giving me anything, how can I like it? I felt no emotional attachment to the characters whatsoever, I felt incredibly bored and waited for either action or interesting stuff about ghosts going to happen. I mean – when you can write about the stuff the ghost is saying to George, you could also add some details. Like – are the ghosts also talking to him when he doesn't want to? What are they saying, what do they want from him?
I can't believe they also made the mistake to make the ghosts look and talk like they did before they died. In Ghost Whisperer, you can do that because it's actually fantasy. But Hereafter is trying to be real, and there's even a woman coming to George telling him her baby died, and I would have loved to see him handle a toddler-ghost. Come on, that's just stupid. If they don't want to give us a clear picture of afterlife, they shouldn't even start with such things. Especially not if they want to address other religions but Christianity, too.
What also didn't help to make this movie more touching or even exciting was the score. People are all saying it's so fantastic – but I'm really asking myself if they have seen the same movie. There was almost no score at all. Some more emotional scenes had maybe a minute of score, but the rest was, so to speak, silence. Again, I don't mind silence in movies. Just give me something to watch instead, then.

Last but not least, I'm asking myself why this got nominated for visual effects. Come on. That one tsunami? Those few seconds of showing us a blurry vision of afterlife? Is that really enough to make the academy forget about Tron: Legacy? Seriously! That's BS.

I can't give Hereafter more than just 2 Full Moons out of 5, because there was nothing in for me. Doesn't mean there might not be something in it for you, though. Maybe if you don't like fantasy, maybe if you like character studies. It's not that bad. It's just boring.


Rating:
2/5 Full Moons