Hereafter [Blu-Ray]

Clint Eastwood might be losing his touch. Hereafter, his latest cinematic endeavour, centres on the intersecting lives of three people in different countries affected by death in different forms. However poignant this concept appears, the film's sappy artificiality and detached acting style thinly veil the tedium of the narrative. Hereafter is basically Final Destination pumped up on a lethal amount of Valium. The beginning of the film opens in an elegant, bourgeois high-rise hotel in Thailand. Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist on assignment, decides to take a stroll to the local market to purchase some souvenirs. The sun is blazing and the marketplace is a throng of colourful beach clothing ― this is serenity. Suddenly, Marie and the local Thai people find themselves directly in the path of a towering tsunami. Marie, unable to outrun the wall of water, nearly drowns. Meanwhile, in England, a pair of adorable identical twin boys ― the only real highlight of the film ― are coping with their mother's heroin addiction, covering up for her so that social services don't intervene. After his mother instructs the older twin, Jason, to fill her prescription at the pharmacy, a gang of local bullies accosts him on the street. He tries frantically to escape and in the most heartbreaking scene, resonating throughout, he gets hit by a truck and dies, leaving his brother, Marcus, alone in the world. Across the pond in San Francisco lives George (Matt Damon), a former professional psychic who tries to ignore his clairvoyance after it interferes with all aspects of his life. During Marie's near-death experience, she believes she glimpsed the afterlife, or the "hereafter," hence the title, and proceeds to write a book on the subject. Marcus tries everyway possible to get in touch with his dead brother. George is the missing link between the three. Though the film has a supernatural premise, it relies more on sentimentality and the notion of "missed connections" to drive its narrative. Ultimately, it is just another pseudo-drama attempting to mask its triviality via familial and romantic love. There are scenes, namely involving the twin boys, that will provoke tears, but the rest of the film will bore anyone to sleep. The film comes with both a Blu-Ray disc and a DVD. The Blu-Ray serves to amplify the stunning CGI of the incoming tsunami. It also has special features, which include an in depth profile of Clint Eastwood that examines his career and relationship with Warner Brothers.