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Jennifer Lewis.
Cinema: Rainbow town
Running time: 121 minutes
Type of film:
Science-fiction: Psychic drama
Age restriction: adults only.

Clint Eastwood’s fingerprints and even some footprints are all over this film. Even in the choice of music; which is heavy Italian, operatic. Now 72 years of age, we must accept the rarity of seeing this Hollywood legend on the screen but can take great pleasure in what he produces from behind the screen.

In this most recent (2010) Eastwood production, we see Matt Damon as I have never seen him before. In every film since his introduction to the screen in 1988’s “Mystic Pizza”. Starring Julia Roberts, he has been cast as one who is reticent to put himself forward, or so it has seemed to me.

As in this film, “Hereafter”, he is reticence squared but in this case it is absolutely called for. Here we are dealing with mystic spirits and apparently it would be suicidal to be forward reaching.
The film is bilingual, with frequent subtitles to translate the French, and rapid movement of the cast across borders. A brand new French leading lady, Cecile de France, catches Damon’s eye in the final scene of the film; and it is quite clear we shall see those two again and together.

I am perhaps the first person to review this film. I plead guilty to the charge often made against me, professionally, that I have declared myself the enemy of the apparently increasing number of those even in elevated educational circles who accept the relevance of the psychic phenomena.

And this film deals with this very dicey subject “in spades”. George (Damon) lives alone and works in a factory in an unidentified American city. Laid off from his job, he is taking some time out and becomes a tourist in Paris and London. As a visitor he is inescapably drawn into two distinct family dramas in which his “skills” are called upon to divine the future and how it should be handled.

By simply holding the hands of his “subjects,” he is enabled to “read ” both the past and the future. Highly reluctant to use his powers for undisclosed reasons – he makes strenuous efforts to avoid those who seek him out, having learned about him and what he can do.
In my own, professional, dealing with this subject, I have become hardened in my scepticism, and highly suspicious of the motives of those who hold themselves out – for money of being able, for instance, to bring grieving relatives into contact and communication with those who have passed on.

On the other hand, this film can be recommended for the touristic scenes it depicts; and, especially, for its opening: a magnificently filmed depiction of a catastrophic tsunami – never equalled in its realism. Worth the price of admission all by itself.