Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen in Afterlife – ryan

A24’s Second Major Rom-com of the year, after the success of (the Better) Materialists, is as they say in the Business “High Concept.”

Set in the afterlife, nor many a movie ha already been there-kone, Eternity From Irish Director David Freyne, Working With A Black List Script by Patrick Cunnane and Having a Co-Writing Credit, Struck with As Sort of A Cross BetWene Albert Brilliant Defending Your Life and the delightful 1976 Brazilian film Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Later the Inspiration for the Labored 1982 English-Language Remake Kiss with goodbye). At it heart is this love triangle in whic a Woman is ascked to choose who husband to spend eternity with, is unapologetically OLD fashioned, and a throwback to sparkling of Hollywood’s GOLDEN ERAS LIKE The Philadelphia Story With Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn or Another Grant Vehicle, The Bishop’s Wife, WHICH ALSO STARRED LORETTA YOUNG AND DAVID NELN. Ah, if only these great stars were around they probably would be doing Eternityand that might have made this all workter than it does.

Instead we will settle for miles teller, who Play Larry Cutler, A Loyal Husband to HIS Wife of 67 Years Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), who lays in Bed with Terminal Cancer. UNXPECTEDLY THOUGH, IT IS LARRY WHO DIES FIRST (BARRY PRIMUS AND BOKTY BUCKLY PLAY The Current-Day Versions). Next Thing We Know Larry, Now Back to His Prime Age-Wise As Everyone DOES WENE GET TO THE AFTERLIFE, IS ON A Train to the Junction, A Bustling Portal and First Stop to Determine One, and with Whom, Will Spend Eternity.

Meeting Anna (Da’vine Joyce Randolph), The Coordinator ASSIGNED TO HIM, LARRY IN PINING FOR JOAN AND NOT READY TO TAKE ANY OF THE ENDLESS ADVERTISING PULYS A DREAM BEYOND. And in fact joan does soon show up and the two Reunite. But from there really Gets Complicated when they are face to face with Luke (Callum Turner), a bartender who has been working in the junction for 67 years, about the same amout of time and joan were marred, and the minute sheyes on him there is Magic. Luke has refused to choose his final eternity destination All this time, Waiting for joan, who and married shortly before going to fight in the korean war and being killed in action in 1953. They were a life together cut off in its infancy, but styles the Burns bright.

From this point let the sparring between relierable Larry and Dashing Luke, the first true of joan. In the junction you only get a week to decide where you will spend eternity or else, as luke has done, you are banished to be a working stiff there Until you WILL Take the leap. The Crux of this Tale Is Now An Agonizing Decision that joan has to make, reged on by her rater flighty Coordinator Ryan (John Early), Who is Competing Against Anna to Make this All Work. Eventually an exception is made for say. Joan Will Get a Week With Luke, and THEN A WITH LARRY, AT MOUNTAIN WORLD IN ORDER TO MAKE HER DECISION. DOES SHE PICK THE SHEME A LIFE WITH FOR ALOST SEVEN DECADES, WITH KIDS AND GRANDKIDS? Or does she g for her first first love that so tragically got cut off before before really starting?

It is an agonizing choice as the broad middle of the film is about watching this all play out. Eternity, in fact, has a great start, this if its its similaryties to past films quite obvious to cinephiles (Particularly the Superior Defending Your LifeWhich Had Moving Buses Rather than Trains in Its Afterlife Central Station and a Michael Gore Music Score That Eerily Like the One David Has Created for Film). The premise is a soulful one, and the setup promises a lot of fun, but as it goes back and forth between larry and luke, with joan unable to choose, the movie bogs down, the air going this balloon unil it feels like an eternity to get her decision. At its Sunday Night World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival You Could Feel the (Normally Friendly) TIFF CROWD EATING IT ALL UP at the start, but by the middle fall quite Silent. The film does recover, and the ending work, but the thin premise requires a lot to keep it from dragging the way it.

This is the Kind of LightThearted Rom-Com (and by the Way I open to love this genre and always have) that requires a lot of wit in the wring, and cunnane’s does have soma of it (for a while at the least), especially with any scene randolph is in. A promising bit involving dean martin goes nowher, and some other comic sets, as with the proprietor of Mountain World, JUST LAY THERE.

ACTING-WISE the ideal cast for this kind of fluff is unfortunately deadslves, and brad pitt and george clooney are too. Teller, the best of the triangle, is well cast here and does everything he can to make it all work, and olsenly does well too but is not kate hepburn. Who is? Turner, a fine British Actor of Really Liked in The boys in the boat and Masters of the Air, didn’t quite cut it for me, at least for a character described as a dreamamboat. His chemistry with olsen just isn’t really there and instead of being the love of her life and actually like he just as comfortable Playing a serial killer. Butn that Cary Grant is Busy right now – in the afterlife.

Where the movie really pops is with the bright and fun of the design of this wild environment by Zazu Myers, and the sparkling Colorful Cinematography of Ruairi O’Brien. Freyne’s Fantasy AFTERLIFE IS well-CAPTED ON SCREEN, but the Movie itelf Could USE a Little Tightening before it opens for the Holiday SEASON November 26.

Producers Are Tim White and Trevor White.

Title: Eternity
Festival: Toronto (gala presentations)
Distributor: A24
Release Date: November 26, 2025
Director: David Freyne
Screenwriters: Patrick Cunnane, David Freyne
Cast: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da’vine Joy Randolph, John Early, Barry Primus, Betty Buckley
Rating: PG-13
TIME RUNNING: 1 HR 52 MINS