In Eternity, the recently deceased Joan must choose who to spend the afterlife with: the man she was married to for sixty-plus years … or her first husband, who died tragically young. The film is sweet, funny and packs in a surprisingly poignant message about the difference between love and happiness. But it also contains sexual situations, some harsh profanity and a dim view of faith and eternity.
Joan is in a pickle. She’s dead.
No, that’s not the problem. Honestly, death the least of her worries.
When Joan breathed her last at a ripe old age, her soul hopped a train to the threshold of eternity (er, eternities … more on that in a minute).
But this liminal space looks more like an outdated hotel convention center than the Pearly Gates. And Joan looks young again—how she looked at the time of her happiest moment, she’s told.
Joan is also told that she needs to make a couple of decisions: First, where would she like to spend her eternity? It’s not an easy choice. After all, there are so many to choose from.
Oh, right. Let me explain …
Think of these eternities as travel destinations, tailored to a specific interest. If you love bracing hikes and snowcapped peaks, Mountain World might be the eternity for you. If sunshine and sandy shores are your thing, Beach World could be your happily ever after. Want to live in Paris in the 1890s? They’ve got an eternity for that, too.
Pretty much anything you can imagine, there’s an eternity for that. No heaven or hell, here. (Unless that’s your choice of eternity.) But once you choose your eternity, you’re stuck for good.
But where to spend her eternity is not Joan’s main problem. It’s who to spend it with.
Joan was married to Larry for more than 60 years. They had a great marriage, with kids and grandkids. Oh sure, they’d bicker like the old married couple they were, but underneath it all was a firm and loving foundation. And Larry kicked the bucket right before Joan, so he’s just waiting for her to join him. (Convenient!)
So, spend eternity with Larry. Easy choice, right?
Not so fast. Joan’s other husband is here, too—her first husband, Luke, who died in the Korean War not long after they were married. Luke is charming. Handsome. And he’s been waiting six decades in this liminal place to be with Joan.
Joan had a wonderful life with Larry. But she often wondered how things would have turned out had Luke never died.
That’s the dilemma. Joan can only spend her eternity with one of these men, each equally determined to prove to her that he’s the right choice.
What is Joan to do?
Joan’s choice is so difficult because she treasured her time with Larry and with Luke. She tells them, “I was lucky to have had you both.”
We’re told that Luke’s happiest moment was when he and Joan were first married and planning a family. Larry’s happiest moment was when Joan was pregnant with their second child, and he felt that they were “a team.”
Despite people’s appearances in the afterlife being determined by their happiest moment, Eternity includes a poignant message about love being more than happiness: Love is about “growing together, looking after each other.”
A character makes a loving, sacrificial decision.
Obviously, Eternity’s postmortem imaginings don’t square with the Christian understanding of life after death. For some Christian viewers, that wouldn’t be a problem; after all, this romcom doesn’t take its quirky, creative premise too seriously—and it doesn’t ask its audience to, either.
Unfortunately, Eternity goes a few steps further. The film seems to have an axe to grind with religion, with most of its barbs aimed at Judeo-Christian beliefs. For instance, when recently-deceased people ask about God, heaven or hell, their questions are met with derisive eye rolls. “They tell you such strange things down there,” says one “afterlife coordinator.”
We learn that morality has no bearing on the afterlife: Everyone gets an eternity of their choosing—even those who are, as the film puts it, “problematic.”
The only real no-no in this view of the afterlife is switching eternities. We’re told that doing so might result in a soul being thrown into “The Void,” described as “the closest thing to hell” in the afterlife.
As mentioned, there are infinite versions of eternity that souls can choose from. Some of the eternities mentioned (through travel brochures and advertisements) include “Catholic World,” “The Pearly Gates” and even “Satanism World.” By and large, Eternity’s choose-your-own-adventure afterlives lean heavily towards hedonism and the self-focused pursuit of pleasure.
Someone says that a soul is nothing more than “a collection of memories.” A woman briefly mentions her former church group in a negative context. Larry tells Joan to not “make people saints because they’re dying.”
One of the “features” of each eternity is an archive where one can relive memories from his or her mortal life. Through this archive, we’re shown snippets of Joan’s relationships with both Larry and Luke. One of these memories involves Joan and Luke engaging in premarital sex. (While the deed is just off-screen, we get a pretty clear sense of the particulars.)
Elsewhere, a couple has sex. Nothing explicit is shown, but we do see some limited movements.
Joan married Larry a few years after Luke was killed in battle. When trying to decide whom to spend her eternity with, Joan essentially “dates” her husbands. These excursions include kissing and cuddling with both men. Joan declares her love for both men, as they do for her.
While wondering why Joan fell in love with him, Larry acknowledges their 65 years of marriage and the fact that “he gave her children.”
We learn that Luke had some sexual relationships—with both women and men—while waiting for Joan in the afterlife.
A woman talks about a secret lesbian relationship and refers to her public life (which included children) as a “miserable old closet.” Two characters start a romantic relationship, and soon after, one suggests they should be polyamorous.
Women wear revealing clothing. Several comments are made about Luke’s handsomeness. Joan says that her family initially thought Luke was only with her because he had gotten her pregnant. (He didn’t.) There are several mentions of Larry’s regained sexual function in the afterlife.
We see a man’s bare backside in a commercial for a “Nudist World.” A celebrity impersonator crudely comes on to Joan. An awkward joke references pedophilia.
We hear about pornography. A crude gag involves the planet Uranus. One eternity is called “Queer World,” another is called “Transgender World.” A few crossdressing individuals appear.
To get to the afterlife, you have to die, and Eternity both shows and tells us about the demise of several characters—mostly for comedic effect.
Larry chokes to death on a peanut. Joan passes away after a battle with cancer. Luke was killed in the Koren War. A nine-year-old says he died in a hit-and-run. A man in a hospital gown assumes that his surgery “didn’t go so well.” A couple says they were killed in a gender reveal party gone awry.
Luke and Larry have a brief tussle. Someone is slapped. A man is tackled by security guards.
We hear one use of the f-word and nine s-words. Jesus’ name is misused 10 times. God’s name is abused more than 20 times, frequently paired with “d–n.”
“D–n” is used an additional four times, and “h—” is heard eight times. Additionally, there are uses of “b–ch,” “a–hole,” “crap” and “bloody.”
People drink throughout the film, often to excess, and some end up hungover as a result. Luke worked as a bartender in the afterlife while waiting for Joan to arrive.
One option for eternity is called “Smoker World,” and its advertisement contains an image of cigarette boxes.
Someone says, “The beauty in life is that things end.” A character insinuates that death was an improvement over her life. Larry needles Luke for dying in the Korean War rather than one of the “cool” wars, like World War II.
One eternity offers a version of 1930s Germany “with no Nazis.” We see an advertisement for a “man-free” world. We hear about AIDS and leprosy.
In many ways, Eternity delivers on its clever premise. The film is genuinely funny and often sweet. Performances by Elizabeth Olsen (Joan), Miles Teller (Larry) and Callum Turner (Luke) are charming and sympathetic. The fantastical afterlife that the filmmakers have created is both straightforward and stylishly realized.
Eternity also contains a surprisingly poignant message—that love is more than just happiness, more than how you may feel in a single moment.
However, some significant content concerns disqualify the film from being a worry-free, heartwarming romcom classic. Sexual situations crop up, as does a bit of unrelated nudity. Suggestive dialogue pervades the script. There’s also a fair bit of profanity for a PG-13 flick. And the entire film holds a cynical and dismissive view of faith.
And it’s that divorce from spiritual reality that robs this film of greater impact. Early in Eternity, when a character asks where he should spend his afterlife, the only response he is given is a shrug and an unhelpful, “You do you.”
That’s the problem here: Eternity cannot deliver a definitive statement. Is love really more than happiness, as the movie suggests? If so, what makes it that way? Is there a source of love that goes beyond our fickle humanity? Is that the truth—unchanging and unshakeable—or a truth, which ebbs and flows depending on individual?
Shrug. “You do you.”
Ultimately, Eternity delivers some niceish messages but has no answers on eternal truth or purpose.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
