"The subject matter inevitably raises more questions than answers so your enjoyment of this visually-subdued film will depend on how much you wanted scriptwriter Peter Morgan to provide them. With Eastwood stubbornly determined to make one of the quietest films you’ll ever see and Matt Damon restrained like never before, the Hereafter could either leave you thinking: or seriously underwhelmed." Graham Young BIRMINGHAM POST "Death is very much in the front of mind of Matt Damon's George Lonegan, a psychic in San Francisco, powers he regards as a curse. As he tries to lead a normal life in a manual job, enjoying his obsession about Charles Dickens, his exploitative brother can see the dollar signs of the after life flashing." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE "If you’re still in the land of the living by the time the three storylines converge, you’ll be met with one terribly unsatisfying conclusion that reiterates just how little Hereafter is about the hereafter. And perhaps that’s the point. Eastwood's weepy depiction of the 'here' is just as dull and tedious as his superficial exploration of the 'after'. Perhaps the afterlife isn’t meant to be understood." Anders Wotzke CUT PRINT REVIEW "It appears that Clint and writer Peter Morgan have gone on an all-night drinking bender with M Night Shymalan and Mystic Meg, got them mortal and then pinched some of the more intriguing ideas. However, this only just manages to avoid crashlanding on Planet Barking by virtue of Clint's skills as a film-maker: it remains watchable in spite of some rum narrative and performances from kids that wouldn't get them a gig as extras on Byker Grove." Tim Evans SKY MOVIES "Here are three apparently disconnected stories set in different parts of the world which inevitably link up at some point. It's an unusual theme for Eastwood to tackle, and there are a few bumpy bits along the way, but the director's innate grace ensures that Hereafter is, in the end, an elevating and in many ways, exceptional experience." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES "Eastwood is not only continuing to turn out fine work, but is also experimenting with genre, directing his first film with otherworldly or fantastical elements since 1985's ambiguously mystical western Pale Rider. Like that film, however, the deeply moving Hereafter remains subtle and thoughtful, whereas in the hands of most directors, it would likely become a far more florid and potentially melodramatic affair." Erin Free FILMINK

"The movie addresses the idea that death is, and perhaps always will be, the "final frontier," and that the afterlife is a universal mystery that almost everyone wants badly to believe in. Eastwood effectively taps into a well of our common feelings: fear of death, the numbing shock of being aware of our mortality, and, most largely, the desperate need for closure." Jeffrey Chen WINDOW TO THE MOVIES "There I was, trapped in the dark, staring at a piercing light, and feeling the reaper's icy claw fingering my throat. Did I experience the afterlife? No. Just Clint Eastwood's new film about it." Robbie Collin NEWS OF THE WORLD "Hereafter begins with its best scene. The start of each story promises so much. Yet the more often we ask "yes, and then?", the less often Morgan and Eastwood stump up a convincing answer." Nigel Andrews FINANCIAL TIMES "This is a movie that is, at its root, a romance, wrapped up in an 80-year-old master director's musings about what happens to us when we die. 'Hereafter' is more about life than it is about death." Mike Scott TIMES-PICAYUNE "This is a bewilderingly pointless drama, weaving together three dreary stories about mortality and the afterlife. It's certainly evocative of a near-death experience, but not in the way intended. A fate only slightly preferable to death. The characters are, at best, tedious. Their stories are sluggish." Christopher Tookey UK SUNDAY MAIL "Eastwood's fans looking for the tough action guy in the story will be disappointed, and the film has its flaws - such as the inbuilt clumsiness of the structure. But it's a thoughtful and sensitive work, and while it may not convince the sceptics that there is something hereafter, it offers something to think about." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "I feel that themes of death and, confronting something in himself is something that he's drawn to in his filmmaking and I think it's very evident here. And I think it's a very extraordinary project for Peter Morgan to be involved with. What is terrific about Eastwood is that he has a real cleanness in his approach to filmmaking and there isn't this claptrap of sentimentality surrounding it." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES

The Inside Story What happens after death? How can someone so close just disappear? How can those left behind continue to live? The answers to those questions have dogged many humans over the years. Everyone, even the strongest believer in life after death will, at some point in their frail existence here on Earth, ask themselves, 'is there a hereafter?' The latest film to feature the "Hereafter" is a drama that explores three character's search for answers about their own lives in the face of what lies beyond. One has had a near-death experience and touched the 'hereafter'. One has lost a relative. One seeks assurance and hope. "We don’t know what’s on the other side, but on this side, it’s final," says two time Oscar® winning director Clint Eastwood. "People have their beliefs about what’s there or what’s not there, but those are all hypotheticals. Nobody knows until you get there." "I think we all want to believe that there’s something beyond and we’re not sure what that might be," adds producer Kathleen Kennedy. "It sounds funny to look at it this way, but I think life is often defined in the face of death." "Death touches the three characters in this film in ways most people don’t experience," says producer Robert Lorenz. "But, in one way or another, we can all relate to the core emotions of the story: love, loss, loneliness and connection. These are things we all experience." Matt Damon, who stars in the film, agrees, noting, "The point isn’t to sit there and be a lonely nihilist. The point is to reach out to the other people that are here on the planet with you. And I think that’s ultimately a very life-affirming message." Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay for "Hereafter" shortly after having lost a dear friend in an accident. It forced him to mull the question everyone considers at some point in their lives. "He died so suddenly. So violently. It made no sense. His spirit was still so alive around us at his funeral." Morgan was probably thinking what any of us would: "Where has he gone?" The screenwriter, who also served as an executive producer adds: "We can be so close to somebody, know everything about them, share everything with them, and then they’re gone and suddenly we know nothing. I wanted to write a story that asks some of those questions. There’s kind of an epic quality to that search." Morgan’s idea evolved into the film’s three converging stories. "As I was writing it, I was unaware of the fact that I’d created three very lonely characters who were somehow seeking completion from one another. It was a very unusual screenplay for me. Normally my screenplays are researched, and based on fact. This felt very instinctive and very emotional, unplanned, unschematic. It was a thrilling story to write." Years after completing the script and putting it in a drawer, Morgan found himself discussing the story with Kennedy while both were in the midst of other films. "Peter mentioned to me that he was working on this script, called ‘Hereafter,’ that was very different from anything he had done," Kennedy, who was in post-production on a film with her partner, Frank Marshall, and Steven Spielberg (they served as executive producers on "Hereafter") poses. Kennedy ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") was taken with the script and gave it to 1994 dual Oscar® winner Spielberg ("Schindler's List") to read. "Steven instantly loved the screenplay and said to me, 'I know exactly who should direct this: it’s Clint.' There was something about it that Steven recognized would appeal to Clint’s sensibilities." Lorenz, Eastwood’s longtime producer, arranged to have the script sent over. "The way it was laid out, it seemed to be something I had never seen before, and had such great dilemmas and dimensions," Eastwood said. "Hereafter" unfolds through the eyes of three individuals in different parts of the world. Though their lives will ultimately converge, they begin their journeys alone. Oscar® winner Matt Damon (Best original screenplay "Good Will Hunting", shared with Ben Affleck) plays George Lonegan, a reluctant psychic medium trying to break free from the desperate people seeking one last moment with loved ones that have passed on. After working with 1988 dual Sierra Award Award winner Damon on "Invictus", dual Oscar® Best Picture winner Eastwood ("Unforgiven" & "Million Dollar Baby") hoped to cast the actor in the film, a desire Damon echoed. "I originally thought that my schedule wasn’t going to permit me to do it because I was on another movie when Clint called me." Damon remembers asking "Did you just call me and say you have a Peter Morgan script that you’re directing? You want to offer me the part and it’s going while I’m working on another movie? I’d rather be tortured than get that call. But it worked out, luckily, because Clint is so flexible. I love working with Clint and his whole team." Since the story is comprised of three separate storylines in three countries, Eastwood was able to shoot the film in a way that accommodated Damon’s schedule. "I thought, why not just do the two stories and then do Matt’s story when he’s available?" Eastwood recalls. "So, that’s what we did. I’m obviously a fan of Matt’s and knew he could really play the character’s conflict." "I think Matt is emerging as one of the most important actors that we’ve had in a long time, when you look at the body of work and the array of roles that he’s taken on," Kennedy (who got her producing break on Steven Spielberg's 1982 smash hit "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial") notes. "And one of the reasons he loves working with Clint is that there is always going to be something that he can learn from him in terms of acting or directing." Damon describes his character as "a very lonely guy. He has, within the last three years, made a big life change because of this ability he has to talk to people that have passed on. It’s something he doesn’t want, that he looks at more as a curse than a gift. It interferes with his ability to be" One who would like to take advantage of George’s special abillity is his brother Billy, played by Jay Mohr form the TV series "Gary Unmarried". "I think Billy is a natural-born hustler," Mohr asserts. "His brother has a very special ability, and I think Billy would really like him to use it to make them both rich, even though, emotionally, it’s very soul-sapping for George. But Billy is just relentless about it." "Casting Jay Mohr as Billy was by far the easiest job we had," Lorenz ("Gran Torino") states. "Jay came in and was a real salesman. He didn’t go for any of the sappy stuff. Jay’s Billy was the ideal contrast to George." In an attempt to move on, George enters into a tentative romance with Melanie, played by Bryce Dallas Howard (who's middle name denotes the Texas city she was conceived in), a displaced Midwesterner he meets at a cooking class. "Melanie has just moved to San Francisco because she just got dumped by someone, so she’s also trying to start over," Howard (Kate Connor in "Terminator Salvation") says. "When she gets paired up with George at this cooking class, he seems perfect for her. She’s a little bit nervous and he’s a little bit shy; they have a nice, genuine rapport." Lorenz says Howard brought the character’s vulnerability to life: "Bryce has a youthful charm and spirit that was perfect for Melanie in so many ways. And her chemistry with Matt was very strong, which we all saw in their first scene together in the cooking class." But can George and Melanie's tentative relationship evolve? Marie Lelay, a highly popular French anchorwoman and political journalist, begins her journey in a small seaside town in Southeast Asia while on a holiday with her boyfriend, Didier is played by Belgian actress and two time César Award winning actress, Cécile de France ("Euro Pudding" & "Russian Dolls"). "Marie is a strong, wealthy businesswoman who is in love with her job and passionate about always telling the truth in her reporting. It’s why she’s a good journalist and why she’s so popular." Eastwood chose de France for the role after viewing her audition tape early in the casting process. "I looked at a few people and right away, she just jumped out. I wasn’t familiar with Cécile prior to this, but I think she’s one of the finest actresses I’ve worked with." Marie’s life is forever changed when she leaves her hotel to look for gifts for Didier’s children in a local street market. Eastwood explains: "After that near-death experience, she goes back to Paris and back to work, but this event has disturbed every aspect of her life." "There is an anxiety that all human beings share when we are confronted with the mystery of death," de France (Monique La Roche in "Around the World in 80 Days") asserts. "We don’t have answers to something that we cannot control. And this kind of trauma forces us to face the fact that we all die one day. Marie can’t move on from what has happened to her." As she attempts to reintegrate back into her life, she discovers an essential separation between herself and those around her. Marie Didier boyfriend, is played by French actor Thierry Neuvic ("Don't Look Back"). "Didier assumes she’s under a lot of stress and has post-traumatic shock. He’s a pragmatic man and cannot understand the change she’s going through. So, a gap begins to grow between them. Didier doesn’t want to go down this road with her." Marie’s loneliness and search for answers drives her to write a book about her own experience. It will lead her to Dr Rousseau and a hospice in the Alps. 2006 Swiss Film Prize winning veteran Swiss actress (and contemporary opera director) Marthe Keller notes: "Dr. Rousseau is a scientist who has spent her life researching what’s considered somewhat of a taboo subject in science: that there are people all over the world who have experienced death and come back to life." Twin brothers George and Frankie McLaren were cast as the centerpiece of the film’s story of loss. Casting director Fiona Weir read over one hundred sets of twins in London for the roles of Jason and Marcus. Though they had done some theatre, they had no film acting experience. Eastwood saw this as an asset to their onscreen roles. "They have great faces and come from a working class neighborhood. They were the least experienced, but they jumped right into it and had a very natural way about them that appealed to me." "They were so instantly right for the way Peter had written these twins," Kennedy adds. "Clint brought out of them a kind of quiet, somewhat damaged sensibility, and some secret that you sense they share." Jason and Marcus are twin brothers from London’s working class council estates. Their mother, Jackie, played by Lyndsey Marshal (Lottie Hope in "The Hours"), is struggling with drug addiction, and the boys are one social worker visit away from being sent to a foster home. Born twelve minutes earlier, Jason is the more confident twin and looks after both his mother and brother. "They’re close because they don’t have many friends," says McLaren. "They always stick by each other because they’re all each other has." Until fate intervenes. "Getting back in touch with his brother becomes an obsession for him," Kennedy says. What It's All About

"Hereafter" is the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George is a blue-collar American who has a very special connection to the afterlife. Once a highly sought-after psychic who could connect with the here-after, he now shuns the limelight despite his brothers constant encouragement to return to his former life and put his powers to use. On the other side of the world, Marie, a French journalist on holidays in Asia, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. What were those shadowy figures she encountered and why her? Marcus, a London schoolboy with a drug addicted mother, has lost the person closest to him and desperately needs answers. Melanie, Georges partner at cooking classes too needs answers about a loved one. Searching for the truth, their encounter with George will forever change what they believe might or must exist in the hereafter.

The Verdict "Those who have a profound attraction to the "Hereafter", want find any blinding revelations in multiple Oscar winner and octogenarian Clint Eastwood's latest film, "Hereafter". Filmed on location in Hawaii, Paris, San Francisco and London, the film opens spectacularly, in what is, for the purpose of storytelling, an Asian setting, but is actually Maui. Eastwood worked with production designer James J Murakami ("Changeling" & "Invictus") to ensure the audience knows where they were at any given time. “Clint wanted each story to have really unique, identifiable settings. So, it was important to capture the modern, sleek look of Paris, and the middle class feel of San Francisco, and then the distressed look of Marcus’s London." The film certainly has a good look thanks to Tom Stern's work. Eastwood's longtime D.O.P., used the process of digital intermediation (D.I.), in which the print is scanned to allow the color timing to be processed digitally. "It’s subtle but each city has a slightly different look to reflect what’s happening in each part of the story." From the French Apls the production team moved to Paris for a week. Filming the scenes in Marie's apartment (located in a 19th century stone building on Boulevard Malesherbes) brought out legions of Eastwood fans to cheer on the production. To complete the setting for the London Book Fair in "Hereafter", the crew assembled publishers to set up booths within the spectacular Alexandra Palace, along with two hundered and seventy five extras to act as fair attendees, salespeople from the different publishing houses and authors. The tsunami sequence, which opens the film, was shot in the town of Lahaina on Maui. Stern and Campanelli put cameras on surfboards and took them out into open water to film the impact when Marie and a small child are caught in the massive, deadly, wave. Eastwood followed them out. "I’d not seen Clint jump in the water before, but it’s pretty typical of his directing style," Lorenz recalls. Kennedy remembers: "We were amazed. I mean, the water was such that the waves were quite big." Eastwood also put together the soundtrack for "Hereafter". Australian conductor Ashley Irwin who conducted the twenty two piece orchestra during the recording process, notes: "Clint sits down and writes the music." Eastwood's view of the film is simple. "In this film, each of the three main characters has something the other one needs, not necessarily answers, but a starting point to get on with their lives. They’ve all just got to do the best they can while they’re here." That's a pretty sound philosophy for life in general. Interesting characters, great SFX, locations and a good cast. But it fails to connect the dots. Worth a look at. 3 STARS." Who's Playing Who?

Matt Damon Cécile De France Bryce Dallas Howard Frankie McLaren George McLaren Jay Mohr Thierry Neuvic Rebekah Staton Declan Conlon Steve R Schirripa Marthe Keller Niamh Cusack George Costigan Joe Bellan Jenifer Lewis Tom Beard Cyndi Mayo Davis Lisa Griffiths Jessica Griffiths Ferguson Reid Derek Sakakura Richard Kind

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George Marie Melanie Marcus/Jason Marcus/Jason Billy Didier Social Worker Social Worker Cooking Teacher 'Carlo' Dr Rousseau Foster Mother Foster Father Tony Candace Priest Island Hotel Clerk Stall Owner Island Girl Rescuer Rescuer Christos

The Crew

Director Writer Producers Executive Producers Original Music D.O.P. Film Editor Casting Production Design Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Clint Eastwood Peter Morgan Clint Eastwood/Kathleen Kennedy/Robert Lorenz Frank Marshall/Tim Moore/Peter Morgan/Steven Spielberg Clint Eastwood Tom Stern Joel Cox & Gary Roach Fiona Weir James J. Murakami Dean Clegg/Anne Seibel/Patrick M. Sullivan Jr/Frank Walsh Lisa Chugg/Hélène Dubreuil/Gary Fettis Deborah Hopper

Run Time 129 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Warner Bros - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2011 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.