I’ve made it pretty clear that the romcom genre is just not for me. There’s a select few that I make exceptions for – “When Harry Met Sally,” “Notting Hill,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” and poor aging aside, “Love Actually” – but most others I find exhaustingly repetitive and manipulative. And if we’re being brutally honest, I wasn’t even going to watch “Eternity” at TIFF as it felt like everything I dislike about the genre despite its strong cast and A24 backing. But the stars aligned and I found myself seated, and then quickly found how unprepared for how hard this one was going to hit me. By the end, “Eternity” left me in a puddle of tears and I’m not entirely sure why or how it melted my frozen heart, but it did and instantly solidified its place among the rare mantle of great romcoms. Sporting a terrific balance of romance and comedy, “Eternity” utilizes the tropes and cliches to its advantage and delivers a heartfelt romance examining an everlasting love that carries beyond the end and into the forever of unknown.
“Eternity” is hopelessly romantic in the best of ways, a romcom that wears its heart on its sleeve, elevated by a knockout cast and exquisite world building. It is a surprisingly genuine look at love and loss and the million small things that make life worth living, reflecting on the value of memories shared and life lived over the lingering regrets of what could have been. Director David Freyne crafts a beautifully unique afterlife to unfold a love triangle beyond time from a script by Pat Cunnane. There’s such an earnestness to the material here in “Eternity,” and you can tell that both Freyne and Cunnane genuinely love love. The “junction” and “afterlife hub” feels fully realized even though it doesn’t always get too deep into, and it visually stuns from Ruairi O’Brien’s cinematography. The afterlife feels like the internet come to life, with eternity pop up sales pitches, hotel room hallways, advertisements and more that really make “Eternity” pop.
The film follows Larry (Miles Teller) and Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) have spent over 60 years together, raising a family with kids and grandkids and living long enough to be a bickering old couple. During a gender reveal party, Larry chokes on a pretzel and passes away, arriving in a wondrous afterlife in which each person has one week to chose an eternity. Each soul is assigned an AC (played by the absolutely hilarious Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who helps guide them in their decisions. Joan arrives shortly after and just as Larry believes everything to be settled, her first love and husband Luke (Callum Turner) appears and has waited Joan’s entire lifetime to see her again. An exception is made for Joan to spend a few days in eternity with each suitor to help her in her decision, but choosing the forever love proves extremely difficult, and life lived clashes with life stolen.
There’s plenty of comparisons to other love stories – namely “The Notebook” – and one could argue that the impossible choice that Joan is confronted with isn’t as compelling or difficult as the film would have you believe. You’re not necessarily wrong, either, as “Eternity” does start to spin its wheels and shows itself to be pretty on pace with standard genre beats. But it’s so genuine that those misgivings fade away to the bevy of emotion (manipulative or not) pouring out from its characters and striking moments of sweetness that consistently landed for me. It makes the most of its high concept premise and imaginative production design that elevate “Eternity” above the clouds of its genre confines. I’ll admit it runs a little too long for something so predictable and starts to repeat itself a little too much, but by the time I started to feel those things I was already a blubbering mess so it didn’t matter.
“Eternity” is equal parts romantic and poignant, wrestling with what we want to keep from our lives and the loved ones we want in our chosen forever. It is so emotionally charged and well constructed, so much so that all of the things I usually roll my eyes at left me wiping tears instead. “Eternity” is the perfect date night film, one you should see with the one you love, the one you can cherish now until the end and beyond. It will make you want to hold a lover close and remind you why you fell in love in the first place. It will remind you of all the forgotten moments you’ve shared together; the silly inside jokes, the quirks and ticks that only you know about each other, and the silly little arguments that all accumulate to remember what love is, what it means to love and be loved.
“Eternity” made me call my partner immediately and tell her how much i loved her. I can’t recall a film that has made me that overwhelmed with love like that, and I think that’s not only something really beautiful but something we could certainly use more of in the world.
Now go by your girlfriend flowers! Quickly before Callum Turner shows up and tries to steal your girl!
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
“Eternity” had its World Premiere at TIFF and will be released in theaters Nov 26th. You can watch the trailer below.
