I have vivid memories of seeing the trailer for Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter for the first time. There was something about it that fascinated me. Maybe it was the cast featuring Matt Damon, Cécile de France (High Tension), and Bryce Dallas Howard among others. Or, it might have been how little the trailer shared with me about what kind of movie it actually was.
The synopsis certainly read like a horror story, but the trailer—set to Sia’s Lullaby for maximum 2010 emotions—looked more tearjerky than scary. Well, if you’re like me and never caught it at the time, now’s your chance to finally check out what Hereafter is really all about. Right now, you can catch it streaming on Max.
Per HBO: A drama centered on three people who each have profound experiences with death intersect, changing them forever.
Clint Eastwood’s supernatural drama is a hodgepodge of different emotions. It’s part disaster movie, part plaintive meditation (at times, it reminded me of Richard Loncraine’s The Haunting of Julia), and part showcase for some of the hottest performers working in 2010. Luckily, it was released at a time when general audiences were interested in the confounding, accounting for a $107 million cumulative gross in the fall of 2010.
Damon and Howard were particular favorites among critics at the time, though Hereafter received its fair share of negative reviews, most of which pointed out misguided sentimentality and a ponderous narrative that never probed as deeply as it thought it was. With its availability on Max, you can now be the judge of one of Clint Eastwood’s strangest features yourself.
Since its arrival on the service, fans online have been sounding off on Hereafter. Check out some choice reactions below:
Clint Eastwood has had success in recent years, notably with 2019’s Richard Jewell. Presently, Eastwood is working on a thriller Juror No. 2 starring Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette. The synopsis reveals that a juror working a murder trial realizes they might be responsible for the victim’s death. Which… yes. I want to see what that’s all about. In the meantime, you can check out Hereafter and wow your friends by dredging up forgotten 2010 memories.