Hereafter

I was supposed to write a review on Hereafter but as usual I have been postponing it. All the 3 important characters have been dealing with death in some way or the other. One of the characters is a psychic & another one has a near death experience – these are 2 reasons why I believe in the story very strongly. And yes I can also understand the pain of the young boy who lost his brother as I have seen a number of deaths as well.

Most of you must have seen it & there’s just no question of recommending it. I think Clint Eastwood has done a superb job.

I’d first like to talk about the story of Marcus & Jason. It’s way too painful. They were both trying to protect their addicted mom. Jason…the smart one was attacked by street thugs & while he tried to escape, he was hit by a van. In the entire movie, Marcus wants to get in touch with the soul of Jason & it's very touching. It just breaks your heart.

Matt Damon is a psychic. He’s damn good at his readings. He could communicate with the dead, but he didn’t pursue this career. And he very rightly said that it wasn’t a gift, it was a curse. Psychics cannot have normal lives. You get to know things you don’t want to know, & there’s no way you could get rid of such crappy gifts which you never ask for in the 1^st place.

Cecile de France is the one who faces near death experience. She was a renowned television journalist & she was in Thailand when the place was hit by the tsunami. Naturally she comes out of it as a totally different person. It’s very strange once someone experiences such things, the world believes he/she has no credibility anymore.They think you're mad.

However, in the end all 3 of them get in touch with each other & things become a little easier for them. They move on & have better lives.

Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" Withdrawn From Japanese Cinemas

Clint Eastwood - director and writer of Hereafter

A scene from the movie showing the aftermath of tsunami.

Clint Eastwood's recent movie that he wrote and directed, "Hereafter" has been withdrawn from the Japanese cinemas after the country witnessed a deadly earthquake followed by tsunami.

The movie's plot shows characters who are stuck in the Asian tsunami and are battling for their survival. It contains scenes that are very similar to the real life disaster that took place in Japan.

In these devastating times, it was best to remove this movie from the cinemas in Japan because it would hurt their sentiments especially people who have lost their loved ones and their homes in this incident recently.

This is not the first time that a movie is pulled off from cinemas due to calamities or disasters. After 9-11, at least 45 films had to be edited, postponed or cancelled. Most of the movies had to delete the images of World Trade Center. "Spider Man" was one such movie that had to cut of an entire scene from the trailers and movie where they showed the Twin Towers. Similarly, Arnold's "Collateral Damage" and Gwyneth Paltrow's "View From The Top" had to be delayed because of similar issues.