You can typically tell where a romantic comedy is going just from the first few moments. So when it manages to surprise you, it is instantly something special. Which is where Eternity comes in.
The new A24 film stars Elizabeth Olsen as Joan, a woman who dies of cancer after spending 65 years married to the same man. Larry (Miles Teller) was Joan’s second husband and while he died first, he’s about to go and prep their new life together in one of the eternities offered to you in the afterlife. The problem is that Joan’s first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), is there and he waited 60+ years to be reunited with her.
On paper, this movie feels like it’d be sad right out the gate. People have died. But instead of being a dark look at life, loss, and what true love is, it is a hilarious romantic comedy where the stakes are quite literally an eternity with the wrong person if you choose incorrectly. This is Joan’s movie. For all the back and forth that Larry and Luke have with each other, Olsen steals the show as a woman trying to follow her heart and figure out if she wants the comfort of her husband of 60+ years or to finally know what life with Luke could have been like.
Mixed with jokes that feel so boomer-esque but are hilarious coming out of Miles Teller’s mouth, Eternity finds a perfect balance between humor and the rom-com beats fans are looking for in movies like this. But it also beautiful spotlights an older kind of love. Think the kind of sweet grandparents who probably hated each other at some point but still loved each other enough to be together. It’s that but somehow sweeter.
Watching Eternity while single will leave you in tears
One of the many struggles of a millennial woman (especially a single one) is the fear that we’ll end up alone. Or at least that is true of this millennial. Often, I am so lost in my own fear of never finding love that I watch these romantic comedies and think about how it won’t happen to me and cry. But with Eternity, it was a different kind of emotional connection. It was one that made me hope I’d find the kind of love that Joan gets twice.
Joan’s love of Luke is rooted in the unknown. He died in the war (but make sure you clarify it was the Korean War or Larry will pop off). She didn’t get to know what a life with him was like and so it pulls her towards him. With Larry, she knows what a family is like with him.
So much of what director David Freyne, who co-wrote the film with Pat Cunnane, did was make the audience question what we’d do in that situation. Would we spend eternity with someone we could have had forever with? Or would we stay with the person who we shared or life with?
Eternity hits theaters on November 26 and is a beautiful new kind of romantic comedy. Just bring your tissues.
(featured image: A24)
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