Hereafter

***1/2 – Clint Eastwood directs this 2010 supernatural drama that brilliantly and ambitiously leads the viewer on a suspenseful and mysterious journey before almost completely screwing the pooch on a jumbled and miscalculated conclusion. The film has three basic story strands: Matt Damon as an American psychic who can commune with people’s dead relatives, Cecile de France as a French woman who has a near death experience after being caught in a tsunami, and some 12 year-old from London whose twin brother is killed after being shoved out in front of a car by some street toughs. I have to say that I was pretty riveted from the dramatic opening sequence showing the tsunami tearing through a small Southeast Asian town all the way up until about ten minutes before the two hour film ended. It seemed for all the world like the three plot strands (and a number of sub-strands that were also introduced at various points) were going to overlap nicely at the end and tie everything together into a nice little package. However, the final scenes show the different storylines only lightly brushing against each other and then drifting back apart almost immediately with an immensely unsatisfying conclusion that left me wondering what the whole point of sitting through this was. That being said, I can’t deny that I enjoyed just about every aspect of this movie up until then, including the acting from the largely solid cast and the direction from the aging tough guy Eastwood. All I’m saying is that the end is pretty disappointing.