Hereafter

Three separate stories. The French journalist Marie survives the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and tries to live with what she saw. In San Francisco the factory worker George can contact the dead and carries the ability as a curse. In London one of a pair of twins dies and the other starts looking for him. The three lines meet in London. Clint Eastwood directed, from a screenplay by Peter Morgan. Matt Damon plays George and Cécile de France plays Marie. DreamWorks bought the script first; it moved to Warner Bros. when Eastwood attached himself across 2008 and 2009. Filming ran from October 2009 to February 2010 in London, San Francisco, Paris and Hawaii. The film carries 170 visual effects, most of them in the tsunami that opens it. On a 50 million dollar budget it grossed 107 million. Reviews split: Roger Ebert gave it four stars, while many critics wrote that despite a thought-provoking premise it fails to generate much compelling drama. After the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, Warner Bros. pulled it from Japanese cinemas early, citing the tsunami scenes at the start. Who it is for: viewers who like calm films about death and what follows, and late Eastwood. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the three strands to pay off. The ending ties them quickly and easily.