Eternity

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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In a throwback to the 1990s and directed by David Freyne, “Eternity” is a sweet Rom Com with a few touches of dark humor. Breezy, colorful, easy on the eyes and a smidge too digestible, the film has stable performances and is very warm but it stays in second gear and is profoundly low-key in its delivery.

Larry (Barry Primus) and Joan (Betty Buckley) are driving to their daughter’s gender reveal party. The two of them have been married for 40+ years and bicker back-and-forth somewhat playfully. Joan has just been diagnosed with cancer.

At the party, a relative mentions Joan being previously married to Luke, a handsome Korean war veteran who had unfortunately passed away. At the mention of Luke’s attractiveness, Larry’s throat constricts and he chokes on a pretzel, expiring quickly on the floor.

A young Larry (Miles Teller) wakes up at a kind of subway terminal full of people unable to find Joan. As it turns out Larry is at a waystation before the afterlife. A week more or less passes. A young Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is seen on the subway escalator, newly passing away from cancer. Larry and Joan are quite relieved to find each other. The pressure of a lonely afterlife is seemingly behind them. After a pause in conversation, Joan looks behind her.

First husband Luke (Callum Turner) appears.

Joan’s afterlife coordinator (John Early) tells Joan that she has to make one choice for her partner in eternity: Larry or Luke.

Joan is deeply ambivalent.

What follows is a contest in likability between the two husbands.

The film proceeds smoothly with light banter and some playful hijinks. Strangely however, the film has low cinematic testosterone. Aside from a few guffaws, both Luke and Larry are a bit bland and square with not much to distinguish them.

The highlights of the film come from the dialogue of actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Larry’s afterlife coordinator and there are funny signs from different eternity scenarios like “Try Satanism!” “Smoking Land: You Can’t Die from Cancer!” and “Weimar Land” — now with 100% Less Nazis!”

The zany touches remind one of “Heaven Can Wait” (1978) and “Defending Your Life” (1991).

By midway, the film flattens its pathos through its re-enactment dating scenes.

The film has a few surrealist accents reminiscent of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) in its bureaucratic conflicts between memory and romance, but for the most part the film runs a formulaic concoction. Romantic cinema neophytes will be entertained as this film touches all the bases, but the more sophisticated will no doubt crave a more vigorous valentine.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com