. 

There are clearly many, many movies that see couples getting together, apparently at the start of a relationship that will last the rest of their lives with no strife or difficulty. There are not so many that follow the intervening years though, and those that do (like Blue Valentine, Life is Beautiful and Before Midnight), inevitably in need of some drama tend to undermine the idea that meeting the one will lead to your happy ever after. This movie begins near the end of a happy marriage though and properly celebrates long lasting, contented monogamy. In fact as well as depicting this, it then goes on to show what comes after that as well. 

Yep, as well as being a romance this also fits into the small subset of genre films, alongside Heaven Can Wait, What Dreams May Come and A Matter of Life and Death, that might be called afterlife movies. 

The set up here is that older couple Larry and Joan have, in pretty quick succession, both died and must now choose how to spend their spiritual eternity. Incidentally, we never get to see the impact of these events on their offspring who it has to be said would have had a very bad fortnight. Certainly the gender reveal party at the start would have been awful for those left behind. The drama here comes from the fact that Joan was married before and quickly widowed, and guess who shows up in this heaven. 

Eternity does not present any real surprises in how it all turns out, even though it deliberately tries to do just that. This movie is all about the infinite journey, rather than the final destination though and it works its way to its satisfying conclusion with charm, character and imagination. I don’t think I want to say too much more than that because a lot of the enjoyment of this movie is in discovering its ideas for yourself. Needless to say the cast, including Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, (potential Bond) Callum Turner and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, are all great (Teller and Olsen in particular convincingly playing old souls in young again bodies) and the dialogue witty (if not laugh out loud funny). The realisation of the parochial purgatory is fun too.

If you’ve seen director David Freyne’s overlooked but delightful 2020 film Dating Amber then you might have some idea what to expect. Conversely if you’ve seen his movie The Cured from three years previously then you really won’t. If both of these passed you by though then no problem because this movie about a love story’s end is a good place to start.