![]() As the character charged with asking the film’s central question - what happens after we die? - her need for an answer seems lacking, her journey sparse and her suffering minimal, though she certainly doesn’t think so (and, apparently, we are supposed to agree). But still, it’s a tear-jerking relief when the most emotionally detached (and sympathetic) characters, Marcus and George, find some company for their lonely souls.īut it’s Marie’s shallow soul-searching that robs “Hereafter” of most of its emotional heft. When these three far-flung individuals eventually cross paths toward the end of the film, you’d be hard-pressed to find a surprise waiting for you. Placed into foster care with apparently no one willing to counsel him, Marcus sets out on a heartbreaking quest across London to find someone - anyone - who can connect with his dead brother. His “gift” has left him lonely and isolated, and, despite his brother’s (Jay Mohr) pleas to return to the moneymaking enterprise, George just wants to have a normal life with connections to living people.įinally, there’s Marcus (played by twins Frankie and George McLaren), a London schoolboy faced not only with trying to protect his junkie mother from Social Services, but also with the sudden death of his identical twin brother. ![]() Then there’s George (Matt Damon), a reluctant San Francisco psychic trying to get as far away from death as he can. But she lives to tell of the supposedly transformative visions she experienced while hovering between life and death - even if no one else in her life wants to hear about them. When the horrific Christmas Day tsunami strikes, Marie nearly dies in the raging waters. ![]() The film opens in 2004 with Marie (Cécile De France), a stunning Parisian journalist at the height of her career, on a ritzy Indonesian vacation with her equally handsome boyfriend (Thierry Neuvic). Unfortunately, each of the underwhelming story lines could’ve used a little magic. The 80-year-old tells his stories plain and true, and, for the most part, they resonate.Įastwood uses a similar no-nonsense sensibility in “Hereafter,” his latest directorial effort, which follows three people on their own remarkably nonspiritual journeys to understand life after death. If there’s one thing we know about film legend Clint Eastwood, it’s that he doesn’t stand for a lot of fluff and wasteful chatter. ![]() Here they are, my picks for The 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2013.Union-Tribune movie panel ‘Hereafter’ a bit slow and hard to follow.ĪP: Clint Eastwood ponders mortality with 'Hereafter'ĪP review: 'Hereafter' elegantly probes great beyond So what follows is a list of what I consider to be the most underrated movies of 2013: films that have a little more going on than many of my peers seemed to recognize, are more entertaining than audiences gave them credit for (often the result of mismarketing), and – in one particularly notable case – are so spectacularly bad that they deserve to achieve cult status, because against the filmmakers' wishes I laughed non-stop from beginning to end, and loved every minute of it. And junky can be just fine, provided you weren't expecting brilliance in the first place, and the film had no greater obligation to its characters, fanbase or to society at large. I think there's a tendency to ride a wave of popular opinion and say a certain film is the worst thing ever when, in fact, it's just merely kind of junky. Some quite a bit better, some merely more fun. As such, some of the films that follow on my picks for The 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2013 are merely better than advertised or rumored.
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