Joan Cutler has an impossible decision to make in “Eternity.” The newly deceased character, played by Elizabeth Olsen, has one week to decide who she wants to spend her afterlife with and two husbands lurking and hoping that she’ll choose them. Luke ( Callum Turner ) is the dashing one who died in the Korean War right as they were starting a life together. Larry ( Miles Teller ) is the other one, kind of common, kind of a crank, but the person who she was married to for 65 years.
Apparently even death is no respite from earthly puzzles like the love triangle. Sure it’s messy and confusing for those involved but it’s also one of the great storytelling setups for a screwball comedy. And this particular film, imaginative and shrewdly whimsical with an utterly charming cast, delivers on the promise. Lucky us.
Most of the film takes place in the Junction, a comically ordinary, brutalist-style hotel/convention center, expo-style trade show in which the recently departed shop around for an afterlife of their choosing. There you’re greeted with an afterlife coordinator (our main “ACs” are the delightful Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early) who explains what’s going on. The options are vast and amusingly specific: Paris Land, Studio 54 World, Mountain Town, Weimar World (with 100% less Nazis!) are just a few. The big catch is that your decision is final.
The story comes from screenwriter Patrick Cunnane who developed it further with director David Freyne. The film wears its many influences on its colorful, kitschy sleeves with Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life” looming large.
We meet Joan and Larry briefly as octogenarians, on the way to a family party and bickering over whether to go away to the beach (Larry’s wish) or the mountains (Joan’s). They mostly seem exhausted by one another, two people who remain together simply because their lives are so intertwined and, you know, what else are they going to do? Joan doesn’t have much time left, she’s dying of cancer, and Larry is ready to care for her as long as it takes. Then, he dies first.
Larry’s holdover week is nearly up when Joan arrives at the Junction where her AC, Ryan (Early), says he’s been waiting for her for 67 years. (Sorry to the filmmakers for innocently choosing a number with six and seven in it and whatever shenanigans might ensue in the movie theater.)
Ryan is also AC to Luke, who, it turns out has been in limbo just waiting for Joan to arrive. It’s the ultimate romantic gesture. And Joan, youthful once more, is profoundly moved by the sight of her dashing first love as Larry looks on, baffled. It’s hard not to think of the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode in which another Larry comes to the conclusion that he’d rather be single in the afterlife. Teller’s Larry, however, has never considered that Joan wouldn’t be by his side in the great beyond.
If you’re wondering why Joan and Larry arrive at the Junction looking like Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller, it’s because in this world (and perhaps playing by “Titanic” logic), you turn back into the happiest version of yourself. That’s why, Randolph’s AC Anna explains, there’s a lot of 10-year-old boys around and not a lot of teenagers.
Joan is, understandably, flustered and overwhelmed by the choice between her steady (and neurotic) rock and the passionate first love whom she never got to have a life with. If there is a gripe, it’s that the script takes a little too long to float the idea that perhaps neither man is also an option for Joan.
Olsen is channeling a kind of mid-century Diane Keaton in her performance, in which she gets to be an old soul in a young body. In one scene, she and Larry end up in hysterics as they rediscover the joys of being able to squat and jump again.
Teller, meanwhile, is surprisingly great as the obvious underdog — an egoless performance that goes a long way. Luke is a little bit less fleshed out as a full character, perhaps because he’s still that young man who was killed in the war (there’s a running joke about it not being World War II). But Turner is committed and enjoyable as the Robert Redford version of Benjamin Braddock. Though he swats away compliments like mosquitoes and insists he’s “not perfect,” it truly does not seem to occur to him that Joan might not choose him in the end.
And again there’s that pesky choice. Is it romantic? Is it depressing? Is it woefully limited in its idea of what a human life amounts to? Yes? It’s committed, clever, comforting simplicity is also pretty satisfying — a contained, crowd-pleaser that does not go on for eternity.
“Eternity,” an A24 release in theaters Wednesday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “sexual content and some strong language.” Running time: 112 minutes. Three stars out of four.
