Eternity - Review 

Rating: 4 out of 5

ROMANTIC comedy-drama Eternity boasts the kind of high concept that premium Pixar would be proud of: and thankfully doesn’t squander it.

It offers an inventive take on the classic love triangle, while also pondering the big relationship questions from the perspective of the afterlife.

Hence, death is far from the end of this journey. Rather, it’s the beginning.

Once your time in the real world is over, you wake up on a train, which stops at a 1960s-looking convention centre, at the exact age when you were at your happiest.

You then meet your AC (Afterlife Consultant), who will help you decide where to go next - a choice informed by some of your favourite things in life.

For Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), who has recently succumbed to cancer, this would appear to be spending eternity together with her late husband Larry (Miles Teller), who passed on just weeks before after choking on a pretzel. Larry, for his part, has been hanging out with his AC Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), attempting to decide what to do.

But Joan’s choice is made much trickier by the revelation that her first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), who died in the Korean War decades earlier, has also been waiting (for 67 years no less) and is desperate to revive what he cruelly lost.

Hence, Joan must decide on discovering what might have been with Luke, or sticking to the safety of her (after)life with Larry, while both men try to woo her once again.

The ensuing dilemma provokes many questions about the nature of what constitutes a good relationship - the giddy early days of lust and romance compared to the “in sickness and in health” element of the wedding vows (the arguments, the ailments, the general day to day).

Of course, it’s not as simple as that straight a choice. Joan never got to experience a life with Luke because war cut any prospect of that short (a plot device that, in itself, serves as a potent reminder of the futility and waste of conflict). Luke wanted Joan to go on and live her life… but feels it’s his turn now.

For Larry, meanwhile, there’s a lifetime of supporting Joan to bank on. He helped her through her grief, they had wonderful children, and he cared for her through cancer before his fateful pretzel moment.

Without ever being heavy-handed, Eternity perhaps makes you confront your own choices and ideology, while simultaneously presenting a genuinely involving movie experience that refuses to offer easy answers.

The comedy and drama is well balanced, the performances lively and engaging and the deliberately retro feel also helps to ensure the film further boasts a “they don’t make them like they used to” quality.

Of the performers, Olsen is on terrific form as a woman torn between two decent men, struggling as much with her own emotions as those of her suitors. She plays it beautifully, capturing a certain giddiness at being presented with the chance to relive past passions, while also tapping into a heartbreak and melancholy at the cards life has dealt her.

Teller and Turner spar convincingly and prove nice foils for each other, while also ensuring their characters remain likeable throughout - there’s no easy slide into villainy that would make either Joan’s or the audiences’ choice easy.

And Randolph and John Early, as the rival ACs, provide the comic relief - the former even nodding towards Whoopi Goldberg’s award-winning turn in Ghost.

David Freyne’s direction is suitably slick without being overly schmaltzy, allowing room for the film’s big concepts to breathe and making inventive use of its limited settings. It has a distinct look and a confidence in its ability to keep you engaged (and even torn).

The overall result is a grown-up romantic comedy-drama that poses some deep questions in a hugely entertaining way.

Certificate: 15

Running time: 1hr 53mins