Hereafter

So, my friend Fred says that Clint Eastwood's films are like broccoli; good for you, but the consumption of them is not a real hoot. I agree with him regarding Invictus and Gran Torino, and I see his point with Million Dollar Baby, though I felt that film was superior to the previous two. I was prepared to scowl through my fangs at Hereafter, given it's esoteric subject matter. The film tells the story of three main characters. The first, George Lonergan (Matt Damon) is a reluctant psychic who has forsaken a career mining his "gift". The second is Marie LeLay (Cecile De France), a French television journalist dealing with the aftermath of surviving a horrific tsunami. The last and most heart-wrenching, is a young English boy (Frankie and George McLaren) who tragically loses his twin brother in an accident.
George Lonergan leads a lonely existence working in a factory and rebuking his brother's attempts to get him back into doing readings for people who want contact with dead relatives. He feels that his gift is a curse that poisons every chance he has at living a normal life. Normal life is also in jeopardy for Marie, who, after viewing a glimpse of death, cannot get back into the now pedestrian grind of the successful single gal. For twins Marcus and Jason, existence is mere survival as the sons of a drug-addicted single mother who cannot take care of herself, let alone her boys. Marcus and Jason have developed that kind of sad, sweet symbiosis that siblings so often fall into when their parents are woefully neglectful. But Marcus is thrown a cruel curve when Jason (the more dominant and take-charge twin) is killed in a car wreck and social services take Marcus from his mother to live with foster parents. Desperate for answers, Marcus turns to the internet to find someone who can help him communicate with his dead brother.
All three characters have a profound relationship with death that they must reconcile before becoming whole again. Real-life twins Frankie and George McLaren are soul-stirring without pulling the sickly sentimental strings so many directors push child actors to exploit. Cecile De France expresses whole worlds of pain in her deep-set eyes and gives a perfect sense of a woman who almost drowned but feels like she's still drowning months after she's dried off. Screenwriter Peter Morgan, so artful in breathing dramatic life into real-life stories (The Queen, The Special Relationship), gives us a straightforward script to no doubt counteract the dreamy quality of the material. It's not Morgan's best effort, as some of the dialogue isn't worthy of an after-school special, but the movie is engaging nonetheless. Overall, Eastwood presents a compelling story, especially given the skepticism most people have towards the subject of the afterlife.
The biggest problem in Hereafter is Matt Damon. I never thought I'd say this; Damon conspires to ruin this film. As George Lonergan, he mopes pathetically without finding a single thing within the character to make us root for him. He is withdrawn, sullen, sad and sorry and I just couldn't give a shit anymore. Damon lets a tantalizing scene with an interested girl named Melanie (an overeager Bryce Dallas Howard) fall as flat as an ab-less reality star. After his intentionally bland performances in The Good Shepherd and the Bourne franchise I am starting to think the Damon is too much a puppet of directors he reveres. Damon talked at length about Robert De Niro urging him to be devoid of emotion as Edward Wilson during filming of The Good Shepherd. While it was perhaps appropriate for the type of character Damon played, it is not all that interesting to watch for two hours. Off duty, Matt Damon is highly intelligent, funny, spirited and even a little bit wicked. We are seeing none of that on screen of late. Will Hunting is one of the more complex and well-written characters brought to life since the 1970's. Damon embodied Will so wholly and completely we felt like we could help to fix him. Maybe Damon should get back to writing. He is smart enough to deliver fully-cooked stories with meaty roles he can do justice to.
My Comment is about taking control. The life of an actor is a constant waiting game where everybody seems to hold the reins but the actor herself. Some become successful by waiting for fame to hit, but most don't get anywhere unless they get off their asses and make it happen for themselves. Sadly, even those who do shun passivity usually don't make it, but such is the business. Beyond show business, times are particularly tough for the children of Baby Boomers who seem to have gotten none of the killer instinct their parents had. The collective malaise is so prevalent that one is forced to admit that maybe Morgan Freeman was right in Se7en when his character declared that all American's want is to "eat cheeseburgers, play the Lotto and watch t.v.". Even as I write this, I am more consumed with how exhausted I am than anything else. What is wrong with us? Pursuing the path of least resistance isn't going to get us out of this mess, yet we sit, inert and unable to motivate. While expecting the country's youth to get cracking might be a little lofty, I think I can demand as much from Matt Damon, who once had enough fire to set his own industry ablaze in the most inspiring way imaginable.