Movie · 2010 · Drama, Fantasy · 2h 9m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.8/10 (126.3K ratings)
Touched by death. Changed by life.
Overview
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.8/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 2.95/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
Metacritic: 56
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Clint Eastwood
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Malpaso Productions
Cast
Matt Damon, Cécile de France, Bryce Dallas Howard, Thierry Neuvic, Cyndi Mayo-Akeo, Lisa Griffiths, Jessica Griffiths, Ferguson Reid, Derek Sakakura, George McLaren, Frankie McLaren, Lyndsey Marshal, Jay Mohr, Rebekah Staton, Declan Conlon, Charlie Creed-Miles, Richard Kind, Claire Price, Franz Drameh, Marcus Boyea
Curator Review
Verdict
A quiet, melancholy Eastwood drama that treats the supernatural as a backdrop for grief, loneliness, and human connection. It’s uneven and often too diffuse, but its restraint, empathy, and occasional emotional grace make it rewarding for viewers open to a contemplative pace.
Best for
Viewers who like meditative dramas about grief and mortality
Fans of understated, character-driven ensemble stories
People interested in spiritual themes without overt religiosity
Viewers who appreciate Eastwood’s late-career minimalism
Skip if
You want a tightly plotted supernatural mystery
You need strong genre thrills or clear payoff
You dislike slow, reflective storytelling
You prefer films that fully explain their metaphysical ideas
Overview
Hereafter is one of Clint Eastwood’s most unusual films: a large-scale studio project that behaves like a hushed chamber drama. It is less interested in proving the existence of an afterlife than in showing how death reshapes the living, and that gives the film a mournful, humane center even when the structure feels loose.
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest strength is its patience. It lingers on small gestures, private grief, and the awkward ways people reach for comfort after loss. That makes it feel emotionally sincere, but also a little shapeless; the three storylines don’t always generate enough momentum before the film finally connects them.
Bottom line
Still, there’s something compelling about how unshowy it all is. Eastwood approaches the supernatural with almost complete lack of spectacle, which turns the film into a study of emptiness, faith, and the need to keep going. It’s not a crowd-pleaser, but it is a thoughtful, unusually tender one.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Neil Bahadur (4.5★) · 215 likes
The crux of the plot is completely ludicrous, yet in a strange roundabout way it allows Eastwood to explore so many of his core interests, including death and grief as implied by the plot. I have very little to say about this one actually - what sticks with me the most is how much this film really consists of "little" moments - nothing really happens in this movie, but there are real moments of beauty throughout - like Damon (whose… more The crux of the plot is completely ludicrous, yet in a strange roundabout way it allows Eastwood to explore so many of his core interests, including death and grief as implied by the plot. I have very little to say about this one actually - what sticks with me the most is how much this film really consists of "little" moments - nothing really happens in this movie, but there are real moments of beauty throughout - like Damon (whose… more
David Sims (4.5★) · 205 likes
what a sweetly sad thing? insane that it exists as a big-scale Hollywood project? Bacala plays a chef in this???
Sean Fennessey · 194 likes
The most unlikely and underrated Clint Eastwood movie.
Filipe Furtado (4.5★) · 190 likes
Far more interested in life than the afterlife which might explain some of the misconceptions. Like a lot of the Eastwood's movies, death hangs over the action, Morgan's script considerations about afterlife and spirits are more a vehicle from the movie to deal with going on through trauma and emptiness. The supernatural material is intriguing by how straightforward it is deal with, the movie just treats as a given that Damon's has a gift and that there's ghosts around, so… more Far more interested in life than the afterlife which might explain some of the misconceptions. Like a lot of the Eastwood's movies, death hangs over the action, Morgan's script considerations about afterlife and spirits are more a vehicle from the movie to deal with going on through trauma and emptiness. The supernatural material is intriguing by how straightforward it is deal with, the movie just treats as a given that Damon's has a gift and that there's ghosts around, so… more
matt lynch (3★) · 134 likes
i enjoy the overall pragmatism here. there's no push for belief, rather a characteristic lack of portent from Eastwood, who clearly has much less interest in the supernatural than he does in simply observing this assortment of lonely hearts.