In director David Freyne’s Eternity, life after death begins with a never-ending tradeshow. This may sound diminishing, but in the film, it plays as aspirational. You die, arrive in this hotel-like limbo, and settle upon your chosen eternity. Co-written with Patrick Cunnane, the film’s rules are not overly difficult to explain; the complication is in the choice.
After 65 years of marriage, Larry (Miles Turner) arrives in the purgatory of Eternity a week before his wife Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) joins him. That’s distressing enough for a time, but it gets worse when we discover that Joan’s killed-in-action first husband Luke (Callum Turner) is still waiting for her to arrive, too. With its triangle established, Freyne’s film relies on its trio of actors to animate its story of love and cascading existential crises. Worry not, however, the situation here is funny too, in part because the film is a genial comedy, but mainly thanks to Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early playing “afterlife coordinators” who deliver the punchlines. Despite her central place in the narrative, it’s actually Olsen who somewhat ices the film, stuck between Teller’s ability with schtick, Turner’s vintage dreamboat presence, and its general goofy tone. Setting aside the gags that fill the film’s margins, though, Olsen’s Joan is faced with choices worthy of contemplation. Who among us hasn’t reconsidered our lives and reflected on regrets? Freyne knows that one doesn’t have to be dead to consider what love is, how it works, and why it makes life worth living.
There’s indeed another layer to Eternity‘s premise—something deeper or even more macabre (think Groundhog Day)—that the film shies away from. Still, while Freyne’s narrative runs along (and far too long) on a track we can foresee to its final station, it also had me thinking. What would my eternity be? Who would I spend it with? Yes, despite its title, this film is not everything, but that feels like something.
