“Hereafter”

Movie Review

Clint Eastwood directed and scored the American drama movie Hereafter, while Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay. The movie is divided into three parallel stories about three people who are all struggling with communicating with the dead. Matt Damon plays George, an American manufacturing worker who has the ability to communicate with the dead and has previously worked as a clairvoyant professionally, but no longer intends to do so. Marie, a French television journalist who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, is portrayed by Cecile de France. And Bryce Dallas Howard plays Bryce. Supporting actors include Thierry Neuvic, Jay Mohr, Lyndsey Marshal, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

London, San Francisco, Paris, and Hawaii were the locations for the filming. The movie was released in October 2010. Despite being a box office hit, the movie got mixed reviews from critics, who praised the acting and premise while criticizing the lack of attention to the story.

French television reporter Marie Lelay is caught in the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean in 2004 while she is on assignment in India. She is pulled dead from the water and revived, but she is then declared dead. After catching a glimpse of the hereafter, she gasps back to life. Marie and Didier are reunited and make their way back to Paris. Didier grants her a leave of absence because the incident makes her job more difficult.

In San Francisco, George Lonegan hesitantly agrees to do a psychic reading for Christos, a wealthy client of his brother Billy. George, a real medium, gave up his profession as a psychic because he found connecting with the dead to be emotionally upsetting. Christos rejects George's question about "June" having any significance; nonetheless, he later reveals to Billy that June was his late wife's nurse, with whom he had fallen in love.

Jason and Marcus, twins aged 12 in London, fight to keep their drug- and alcohol-dependent mother Jackie from turning them over to social services. Jackie, who has finally made the decision to get sober, sends Jason to the pharmacy to pick up her detox prescription while avoiding law enforcement. Jason is struck by a van and killed while fleeing from street thugs. Marcus was then placed in a foster family by social services.

To see a hospice director who was formerly skeptical but is now persuaded there is an afterlife, Marie travels to Switzerland. She convinces Marie to pen a book about her experience in the hopes that it will help the scientific community come to terms with the truth of life after death.

Marcus borrows money from his foster parents in a desperate attempt to reach his brother, Jason, but all he finds are con artists. Jason blows Marcus' head hat off as he enters the Charing Cross station of the London Underground. He misses his train, which explodes during the 2005 London Bombings, while he rushes to find it.

George gets teamed with Melanie in a culinary class. After clicking, they cook supper in George's house, when a phone call from Billy compels George to admit he has psychic abilities. George is persuaded by Melanie to speak with her father's ghost, who begs for forgiveness for what he did to her when she was a youngster. Melanie leaves the cooking class in tears and does not come back.

Marie surprises the publisher she was in discussions with about publishing a biography of Francois Mitterrand with her most recent work, "Hereafter: A Conspiracy of Silence." Although the publisher rejects the manuscript, she is sent to another in London. Because of her reputational harm from her interest in the afterlife and the fact that Didier is having an affair with another woman, their relationship is basically over when Marie finds out that Didier has no intention of returning to her job.

Billy convinces George to restart his psychic business after he loses his industrial job. Nevertheless, he makes an impulsive trip to London because he is on a Dickens kick and wants to listen to Derek Jacobi's audiobooks, see the Charles Dickens Museum, and see Jacobi perform live at the London Book Fair while Marie is reading from her recently released book, Hereafter. As he hands George a signed copy, a flash of her almost drowning appears.

Marcus and his foster parents attend the event when George, whom Marcus had read about online, walks by. Marcus waits outside until George agrees to conduct a reading before George dismisses him and goes back to his hotel. George tells Marcus that Jason is happy in the afterlife, that he pulled off his cap to save Marcus at the train station, and that he shouldn't be afraid of being alone "because we are one." Marcus now visits his mother, who is receiving treatment at a recovery center.

George writes Marie a note asking her to a café, saying that he has a vision of the two of them kissing. George and Marie sat together, their shared experiences of the afterlife having increased their appreciation for life.

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