‘Eternity’ review: Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner head thin afterlife romcom

Dir: David Freyne. US. 2025. 112mins

A high-concept romantic fantasy with a saccharine soul, David Freyne’s Eternity posits an afterlife that’s extra like shopping for a everlasting timeshare than heaven or hell. After choking to dying on a pretzel, Larry (Miles Teller) awakens on a practice heading in direction of a terminus the place he waits for his spouse Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) earlier than deciding how you can spend their afterlife collectively. When she seems, nevertheless, her first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who died younger, reveals up with the identical need to spend eternity with Joan. Sadly, very similar to the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel, the thinness of this situational comedy, which continues to hit the identical jokes with diminishing returns, turns into manifestly apparent. 

All three characters really feel like wasted alternatives

After debuting in Toronto, the movie shall be launched within the US on November 26 and the UK on December 5. Definitely A24 will hope a narrative about household and recollections will play nicely to American audiences looking for some middlebrow leisure on Thanksgiving weekend. They will even lean on a stacked ensemble that, together with Teller, Olsen and Turner, contains comic John Early, Tony nominee Olga Merediz and Academy Award winner Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph (The Holdovers). Viewers who noticed Freyne’s queer comedy Courting Amber may additionally welcome the director’s return to messy relationships, even when the ultimate product is way much less fascinating than his prior work.

Eternity spoils its potential for classy world constructing by way of shoddy camerawork. When Larry arrives within the afterlife, each he and the viewers are in awe of this practice station’s sprawling universe with its fashionable mid-century look. The showroom flooring options individuals hilariously promoting totally different sorts of eternities, like Queer World, Capitalist World, and Males-Free World (it’s offered out), whereas the remainder of the huge complicated holds innumerable flats out there to souls who’re deciding their subsequent steps. But odd blocking reveals the actors at unflattering angles, and repetitive, inelegant compositions develop into boring to observe.  

One other crimson flag arises when the supporting gamers start outshining the celebrities. When a brand new soul arrives on the terminus, they’re assigned an Afterlife Coordinator (AC for brief) who will assist them undergo their choices. As Larry’s AC Anna, Randolph shows exact comedic timing and readings. As Joan’s AC Ryan,  Early is equally as sassy and deliciously conniving in making an attempt to persuade Joan to decide on Luke over Larry. When mixed, Early and Randolph have an simple spark whose brightness is missed when they’re off display screen.    

As a substitute we circle a story drain watching Luke and Larry struggle over Joan. All three characters really feel like wasted alternatives. Luke has been working for 67 years as a bartender on the terminus, awaiting Joan’s look. Larry, who’s lived within the shadow of Luke’s reminiscence, holds a long time value of experiences with Joan. There’s inherent heartache to each their instances. And but we principally see Luke and Larry ship stinging barbs. When Luke lays declare to dying in battle, Larry retorts, “It was Korea, buddy. Calm down.” There’s solely so lengthy one can watch two grown males argue earlier than it turns into tiring – particularly as a result of Joan isn’t actually a plausible character; she solely exists in relation to them as their fantasy.  

The truth is, one of many movie’s extra thrilling moments is when Joan considers the opportunity of working off together with her lesbian greatest buddy (Merediz) into Paris World. However that doubtlessly disruptive choice rapidly dissipates, leaving viewers with a heteronormative throuple missing drama, intrigue and even kinkiness.    

The movie teases higher drama by way of this universe’s primary logic. When you choose an eternity you possibly can by no means return or change to a different. Should you break both rule, you’ll be thrown into the void. As Joan wrestles to find out which man to decide on – a painstaking choice the place she should think about the life she may have had versus the one she beloved – that third choice at all times lingers. Disappointingly, Freyne by no means considers pulling that lever. As a substitute he opts for a Christopher Nolan-inspired collapsing of worlds whose upbeat grace word betrays the existential risk his fascinating premise held.