Eternity (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

My Take – Is there an afterlife? If yes, what happens in it? These are certain questions humans have eternally pondered over. And while devout believers have absolute certainty about eternal life, and skeptics continue to question the existence of a hereafter, the rest have managed to settle somewhere in between, simply hoping for something positive.

However, in this latest directorial effort from David Freyne (The Cured), we are introduced to a version of the afterlife where we get to choose an also dead partner to spend our eternity with. But while, the concept may sound sentimental and mawkish, writer Pat Cunnane‘s script brings a lot of humor, heart and brains to this innovative, delightful and contemplative classic love triangle. A tender and cleverly constructed afterlife romantic comedy that asks impossible questions about love, memory and choice.

Sure, it isn’t exactly a timeless classic, but it also impossible to stop from getting drifted away by the delicious chaos director Freyne unleashes for 114 minutes, during which it seamlessly blends comedy, imagination, emotion, and philosophy. It’s light-hearted, yet moving. Funny, yet reflective.

But most importantly, the film is a rare thing in today’s Hollywood landscape: a creative, original story that isn’t trying to cash in on existing IP or determined to build into a franchise by setting up sequels for the next decade. Being the kind of rom coms we don’t get anymore, one that’s emotional without being cheesy, funny without being forced, and high-concept without drowning in its own ideas.

The story begins with an elderly Larry (Barry Primus), who soon after arriving at a gender reveal party, along with his wife, Joan (Betty Buckley), chokes on a pretzel and dies. Only to find himself waking up as his youthful self (Miles Teller) in The Junction, a retro convention-center-style limbo where the newly dead return to the age they were happiest and are given a week to choose an afterlife scenario, with the help of an Afterlife Consultant Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), to live in forever. Some have been retired, some are too full, and some are just plain normal.

But just as he is about to make his decision, a younger Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) too arrives, after succumbing to cancer in life. And while all seems well for the bickering, albeit loving, couple who have spent over 65 years building a life together, a complication arrives in the form of Luke (Callum Turner), Joan’s first husband, who died young in the Korean War and refused to move forward in hopes of meeting her again. Forcing Joan to choose between the comfort of her decades old marriage and the thrill of a love frozen in youthful ecstasy.

Indeed, this is such an ingenious concept from a Black List script by Pat Cunnane, it’s a surprise no one has thought to do it before.

A classic love triangle re-framed as an existential dilemma, and the film handles its scale with surprising grace. Here, director Freyne blends the polished sentimentality of ‘90s studio romances with the fantastical sweep of ‘40s Hollywood, while filtering it all through a contemporary perspective, by keeping the emotional stakes high while letting humor and absurdity of the situation constantly bubble through.

At its heart, the film is deeply romantic and moving, as Joan ponders back on her life and all the missed opportunities. But the sharply funny writing stops the darker side of the script from becoming too downbeat. In the sense, even though Joan faces a taxing decision, it shares playful banter between the three leads and rollicks with spirited, bouncy surprises in the celestial environment. Reaffirming the fact that life is an uncomfortable combination of funny, tragic and nonsensical, and the film understands that balance.

The film carefully examines how people, specifically women, define what brings them fulfillment and joy. At some point, it does address the possibility of Joan not choosing either of them at all, but it also gives her the option to accept that romantic companionship is important to her. It’s not a coincidence that she has to make this choice in a limbo sales convention where people hand out brochures about paradises.

Yes, the rules of this afterlife are intentionally wobbly, sometimes confusing, but that’s part of the charm. The audience learns about the world the same way the characters do, through trial, error, and the occasional aggressive salesperson in an angelic pantsuit.

Agreed, the final act that doesn’t reach the emotional crescendo it builds toward, and the repetition surrounding Joan’s indecision slightly slows momentum, softening what probably should have been a devastating punch. But despite its softened landing, the film earns its brownies by being a rare big-hearted, original studio romance that risks sentiment, scale and sincerity.

Performances wise, Elizabeth Olsen is luminous as Joan and captures her torment with nuance. Miles Teller, as always, is quietly moving and unexpectedly charming. Callum Turner brings an old-school matinee magnetism and makes Luke’s soft, steady yearning believable.

In supporting roles, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Olga Merediz and John Early bring comedic sharpness without diluting the emotional stakes, while Barry Primus and Betty Buckley make for a sweet elderly couple. On the whole, ‘Eternity‘ is a sweeping afterlife romance that seamlessly blends comedy, imagination, emotion, and philosophy.