Speaker 1: You've died and gone to the afterlife. They're waiting for
Speaker 1: you as your partner of sixty five years. They're young
Speaker 1: and vibrant again and looking forward to spending forever together
Speaker 1: with you. But before you can adjust to that realization,
Speaker 1: another person emerges. It's your first spouse, who died sixty
Speaker 1: seven years ago and waited for you before deciding where
Speaker 1: they would spend there forever. Now you face a tough decision.
Speaker 1: It's Eternity. I'm rodel Young Junior, and I'm leaving the
Speaker 1: theater all right. This is Ronald and I am leaving
Speaker 1: the theater after seeing Eternity. Eternity written by Pat Knane
Speaker 1: and David Frayne, directed by David Frayne, starring Miles Teller,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, John Early, Olgameritith and Divine Joy,
Speaker 1: Randolph and per Usual. For a complete cast listing, you
Speaker 1: can go to the link in our show notes It
Speaker 1: is just Me Today. Eternity is a movie about a
Speaker 1: man named Larry who dies and as he goes into
Speaker 1: the afterlife, he is confronted with this structure in which
Speaker 1: he has a week to choose where his permanent afterlife
Speaker 1: will be While he's there, he realizes that his wife,
Speaker 1: who had cancer, was soon to die, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to wait for her before he chose his afterlife. His
Speaker 1: wife dies, and when she does, they both realize that
Speaker 1: there's been another man waiting for her in the same
Speaker 1: afterlife kind of temporary waiting area. And his name is
Speaker 1: Luke and this was her first husband. He died in
Speaker 1: the Korean War. Two years later, she marries Larry, has
Speaker 1: a full life with Larry, including children and grandchildren. She
Speaker 1: is then confronted with the choice to choose who she
Speaker 1: will spend eternity with, because whoever she chooses, that will
Speaker 1: be the permanent choice for the rest of eternity. Wow. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this film the premise is I think the premise
Speaker 1: is what got me. I said, Oh, that's an interesting premise.
Speaker 1: It's a love triangle. The premise started strong, and I
Speaker 1: think one of the first thing I note is that
Speaker 1: in the afterlife, you are reverted to the body in
Speaker 1: which you were the most happiest. This means that when
Speaker 1: we see Miles Teller and we see Elizabeth Olsen in
Speaker 1: the afterlife, they are young, but they are acting like
Speaker 1: old folks. We meet them as old folks bickering in
Speaker 1: the car, being generally like just grandparents, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, That's how we meet them. And the first
Speaker 1: thing I noted was that as soon as Miles Teller
Speaker 1: shows up in the Afterlife, he's acting like an old person.
Speaker 1: And it's not the way he's walking, but it's more
Speaker 1: the way he's talking, in the way he's relating to
Speaker 1: the world, which I thought was it was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun because Elizabeth Olsen was doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: And even when Callum Turner shows up as Luke, he
Speaker 1: died after he was shipped off to the Korean War,
Speaker 1: and as a result, he also is embodying someone from
Speaker 1: a long time ago. Even though he's in this youthful body,
Speaker 1: his soul is very much still this old timey ward
Speaker 1: twenty thirties, dapper dir dy, like that type of guy.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I'll understand what I mean. I think that portion
Speaker 1: of the acting was very, very admirable. Was a I
Speaker 1: think it was a small thing, but obviously they they
Speaker 1: discussed it enough that I felt like they nailed that
Speaker 1: portion of it. Divine Joy Randolph and John Early are
Speaker 1: very funny in this movie. They play what are called
Speaker 1: AC's or afterlife coordinators. Their whole job is to ussure
Speaker 1: along people in making their eternity decisions. The way that
Speaker 1: they both interact with Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller and
Speaker 1: Callum Turner is very very it's fun. I'm having a
Speaker 1: good time. At some points it felt like an ensemble comedy,
Speaker 1: even though it was more about the love triangle. But
Speaker 1: they gave Divine Joy Randolph and John Early so much
Speaker 1: to do that it was just very good and everybody
Speaker 1: had chemistry. There's chemistry between Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen,
Speaker 1: There's chemistry between Elizabeth Olsen and Kllum Turner, and then
Speaker 1: there's also this great dynamic between Miles Teller and Divine
Speaker 1: Joy Randolph, as well as between John Early and Divine
Speaker 1: Joy Randolph. They're just all enjoyable and such a delight
Speaker 1: to watch on screen. While I'm watching this movie, I
Speaker 1: realized that if you are a fan of The Good
Speaker 1: Place or upload from Amazon Prime or the Adjustment Bureau,
Speaker 1: this will be a movie that you probably also enjoy.
Speaker 1: Definitely that sense of I don't know if magical realism
Speaker 1: is the right term, but I will use it to
Speaker 1: say they don't do a lot of explaining as to
Speaker 1: what the afterlife is. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: appreciated that they made it very neutral and non religious,
Speaker 1: meaning that everyone has an afterlife, everyone chooses an eternity,
Speaker 1: and it's up to them to choose exactly where they
Speaker 1: want to be, and if some of those are religious,
Speaker 1: then so be it, and if some of those are not,
Speaker 1: then so be that as well, which was interesting, and
Speaker 1: they had a lot of fun selecting all the different
Speaker 1: types of afterlifs. It reminded me a lot of The
Speaker 1: Good Place in that way for those that enjoy that show,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of reference says to all the different
Speaker 1: types of good places. Or there's a restaurant that has
Speaker 1: that kept changing the name and it had puns in
Speaker 1: the name about clam chowder and so on and so forth,
Speaker 1: And I feel like that joke is kind of continued,
Speaker 1: even though it's not by the same person, but it's
Speaker 1: continued in this movie, meaning that there's just an infinite
Speaker 1: amount of types of world you can go. There's beach world,
Speaker 1: there's mountain world, there's Studio fifty four world. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of jokes about the world. They were just really enjoyable,
Speaker 1: like all of the kind of jokes about what world
Speaker 1: that you could go to. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things happening in the background as they're in this kind
Speaker 1: of busy, kind of train station slash depot area that
Speaker 1: looks kind of like a combination of any conference hotel
Speaker 1: you've ever been to and any train station you've been to.
Speaker 1: There's a beautiful kind of combination of both of those
Speaker 1: things happening here, and there's all of these different selections
Speaker 1: of the type of afterlife eternity that you can choose,
Speaker 1: and it's just funny. It's funny. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun with that portion of it. But it's also
Speaker 1: it's a very interesting premise because this movie is talking
Speaker 1: about loving more than one person at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's talking about two different types of love, meaning that
Speaker 1: the type of love that Joan, who is Elizabeth Olsen,
Speaker 1: had with Larry was different because she was with him
Speaker 1: for a very long time, versus the love that she
Speaker 1: had with Luke, which was new and hot and fresh
Speaker 1: and it was very much the spark that people think
Speaker 1: of all of that existed there. Pitting those two types
Speaker 1: of love against each other was it was very interesting
Speaker 1: because I think it's the ways in which we think
Speaker 1: about whether or not something is working or not. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've I've heard it said, whether directly to
Speaker 1: me or generally, you'll just be like, I just don't
Speaker 1: feel that spark. I don't feel that spark. And I
Speaker 1: think it's interesting because I think this movie explores something
Speaker 1: that I've only done a thought experiment on, which is
Speaker 1: the idea of a spark is very exciting because it
Speaker 1: starts a fire, you know. And so when you're starting
Speaker 1: a fire, you see the flint light up and then
Speaker 1: you see those sparks fly and then it's fire. But
Speaker 1: if you think about what fire became fire when we
Speaker 1: started to control it became electricity. And something that's not
Speaker 1: exciting is walking into a room and turning on a
Speaker 1: light switch. And that's not exactly a miracle because we
Speaker 1: could dismiss it as ordinary. But if we still go
Speaker 1: by the beach and stand by the fire, we're like, ooh,
Speaker 1: the fire is so interesting. They both give light, but
Speaker 1: for some reason we value one over the other. Even
Speaker 1: though the utility of electricity is still a miracle, it's
Speaker 1: just become mundane in the way that we kind of
Speaker 1: live our lives, and that's kind of what we look
Speaker 1: at when it comes to these longer term relationships or
Speaker 1: relationships in which you ease into the comfort of it.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean as much
Speaker 1: to you, but it certainly means that your relationship with
Speaker 1: it is different. And I think this movie does a
Speaker 1: very good job of addressing both of those head on.
Speaker 1: It says, this is one thing and this is another thing,
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Olsen has to do a lot of work
Speaker 1: and a woman who is torn between those two decisions
Speaker 1: of this is hot and sparky and so deeply romantic
Speaker 1: that this man waited for me in this depot sixty
Speaker 1: seven years for me to show up so that we
Speaker 1: could be together, and she has to weigh that against
Speaker 1: but I built a life with this other man who
Speaker 1: has such a good rapport with and we have all
Speaker 1: these this family history, all of that which also feels important.
Speaker 1: And it does a very good job job of her
Speaker 1: walking the balance between those two things and her confronting
Speaker 1: them and really making a decision as to what she
Speaker 1: actually wants. This movie Eternity is kind of past lives
Speaker 1: with jokes. You know, this is a lot more funny
Speaker 1: and a lot more lighthearted. It's a true romantic comedy.
Speaker 1: Past Lives is a drama, it's a romance. It's really
Speaker 1: it's not meant to be funny, and it's not funny.
Speaker 1: And it was hard for me. It was devastating for
Speaker 1: me to watch, whereas there are parts of it that
Speaker 1: made me feel deeply sad and like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what a decision, And there were other parts of it
Speaker 1: that made me understand kind of the choice that the
Speaker 1: woman the main character forgetting both the name of I
Speaker 1: want to say her name is Greta Lee, but that's
Speaker 1: not the character's name. But it's making me understand the
Speaker 1: choice that she had in Past Lives in a way
Speaker 1: that I couldn't appreciate before. And I'll revisit the movie,
Speaker 1: but again, it's a movie about thinking about the possibilities
Speaker 1: of love and what it looks like to be in
Speaker 1: love when love continues, and to think about the possibility
Speaker 1: of love when love begins. And it really says which
Speaker 1: one do you want? It looks you straight in the
Speaker 1: face and says which one do you want? And man,
Speaker 1: I just I liked it. I dug it. And with
Speaker 1: this movie existing in a movie like Good Fortune coming out,
Speaker 1: movies that are smaller than say something like Centers or
Speaker 1: Wicked for Good or Avatars coming out in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. It just it really, it gave me some hope.
Speaker 1: This is an original screenplay and for this to not
Speaker 1: be an adaptation of something else, for it to be
Speaker 1: completely original and made it just made me so excited.
Speaker 1: This and Good Fortune heartened me for the possibilities of
Speaker 1: storytelling in Hollywood. And with all that being said, for me,
Speaker 1: this was a strong four point twenty five. I liked
Speaker 1: it a little bit more than Good Fortune, but not
Speaker 1: by much. I think I gave Good Fortune a four.
Speaker 1: This is a four point twenty five because at one
Speaker 1: point in the movie I thought it was starting to
Speaker 1: get a little silly, and I thought it was starting
Speaker 1: to run off track, and then it just it adjusts.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't just adjust, It knew what it was doing.
Speaker 1: It wrote itself into the right direction in a way
Speaker 1: that just ah. Man, it was very satisfying to watch,
Speaker 1: and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, so yeah, Miles
Speaker 1: Teller fantastic. Elizabeth Olsen, I think is one of the
Speaker 1: most underrated actresses of this generation. I'm glad that she's
Speaker 1: moving beyond the Marvel cinematic universe, and I feel like
Speaker 1: if this is any indication of where she's going, then
Speaker 1: we should be very excited for her. Everyone in this
Speaker 1: job did a great movie. Callum Turner fantastic. I don't
Speaker 1: know what else he's in. I'm sure y'all do. You're
Speaker 1: probably yelling it at me right now, but I know
Speaker 1: he's been in other things, things that I may have
Speaker 1: missed or things that I did not recognize him in.
Speaker 1: He's fairly new to me, but I know he's been
Speaker 1: in other things. And John Earland to Divine Joy Randolph.
Speaker 1: Divine Joy Randolph is wonderful in this movie. She's so good.
Speaker 1: I hope that she keeps getting work. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've seen her around since. I know she was in
Speaker 1: Orange is the New Black, but I first recognized her
Speaker 1: from Only Murders in the Building, and then of course
Speaker 1: she did the one with Paul Giamatti a few years ago,
Speaker 1: The Leftovers, The Holdovers, one of those two, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I just really enjoyed her in this film. Everybody did
Speaker 1: a great job. Yeah, this is a four point two
Speaker 1: five star movie. And a couple of times in my
Speaker 1: mind it was pinging five stars, it was pinging it
Speaker 1: up there, but not quite. There was a little bit
Speaker 1: of silliness that I felt like kind of pulled it
Speaker 1: off track. And I think that there were some constraints
Speaker 1: that were plot driven, meaning that there were rules that
Speaker 1: only existed in this version of Eternity as plot devices,
Speaker 1: the passage of time, perhaps every constraint that existed in
Speaker 1: this film was they were all plot specific. So something
Speaker 1: about that was a little bit off putting. Not off putting,
Speaker 1: but it was one of those like mm hmm. Didn't
Speaker 1: quite think of it all, did you? Or was this
Speaker 1: only makes sense in the context of this Eternity, which
Speaker 1: it wasn't bad, but it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: I started to question some of the rules here. Early
Speaker 1: in the film, Larry runs into Luke at a bar
Speaker 1: and he doesn't recognize that it's Luke, even though he'd
Speaker 1: seen a picture of him in real life. And I
Speaker 1: felt like that was a little bit like, you just
Speaker 1: saw a picture of him, why would you not you
Speaker 1: would know who that was? And then also why would
Speaker 1: you introduce him in that way? But there's a bookended
Speaker 1: part of the film, which is why I think they
Speaker 1: went in that direction. And the whole idea is of
Speaker 1: all the balls and bars in the world, of all
Speaker 1: the bars in the world, why'd you choose this one
Speaker 1: type thing? I think there was a romantic element there,
Speaker 1: so little things like that is what knocked it down
Speaker 1: for me. But still very good. Four point twenty five
Speaker 1: of five stars and with that. Leaving the Theater is
Speaker 1: a production of Oh It's Big Ron Studios. I mixed
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Speaker 1: we have a lot of dedicated patrons. So for all
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Speaker 1: Show art from Heather Wilder. Theme music by the mysterious
Speaker 1: Breakmaster Cylinder. For more information about Eternity, check out our
Speaker 1: show notes. You can follow me on Instagram, Blue Sky, TikTok, threads,
Speaker 1: or letterboxed at owitz Big Ron. That's at O H
Speaker 1: I T S b I g R O N. You
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Speaker 1: Big Ron Studios leaving the theater will be back soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. I'm Ronald Young Junior and I'm badr
Speaker 1: D like that type of guy.