Eternity (2025)
Directed by: David Freyne
Premise: Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) dies and arrives in the afterlife. She must choose whether to spend eternity with her first husband (Callum Turner) who died in the Korean War or her second husband (Miles Teller) to whom she was married for decades.
What Works: Eternity brings a novel approach to the love triangle. The movie imagines a woman meeting each of her husbands in the afterlife and the rules of the hereafter require her to choose one of them to be her partner for the rest of time. This scenario raises the stakes of the typical romantic triangle and it suggests interesting questions about love and devotion and what it means to be married. The core cast makes this film work. Elizabeth Olsen plays Joan and she balances the humor and the drama. The premise is inherently absurd and Joan must deal with competing husbands while weighing an impossible choice. Miles Teller and Callum Turner play the two husbands and they have a spirited competition. Teller’s character died in old age and Teller includes elderly mannerisms in his voice and posture. Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early are also well cast as afterlife administrators. The world of Eternity is very creative. Each new soul arrives in the afterlife as the body in which they were most happy, so this world is populated with a variety of characters. The eternities are like theme parks and the possibilities are fun and unusual.
What Doesn’t: The story of Eternity is structured around Larry, the second husband who is played by Miles Teller. Larry dies before Joan and then waits for her to arrive in the afterlife. It doesn’t make much sense to make Larry the point of view character. Joan is the real protagonist since the story hinges on her choices. The internal logical of Eternity is inconsistent. Everyone must pick an afterlife and if they leave that place, the authorities put absconding souls into a void. But when Joan waffles on her choice, the afterlife administration allows her to visit each husband’s chosen destination and then when Joan second guesses her choice and escapes, the authorities chase her for awhile but then give up. Eternity is a love triangle and the resolutions of these stories are inherently unsatisfying. Eternity is especially frustrating because it entertains a bold choice and then undoes it. Joan makes her decision and rationalizes it with a harsh but truthful argument. It’s the right choice for the story but the filmmakers retreat to rom-com clichés complete with the guy running to the train station. It’s a disappointing end to what is otherwise a smart and creative movie.
Bottom Line: For most of its running time, Eternity is a creative riff on the love triangle premise and there is a lot to admire about it. Eternity verges on something interesting and even subversive but the filmmakers ultimately fall back on romantic comedy clichés and in doing so break the story’s internal logic.
Episode: #1077 (December 7, 2025)