With its release a mere month and a half away and its contained premiere (just one screening) at TIFF just around the corner, Warner Bros. have finally unveiled the first trailer for Clint Eastwood latest effort — a self-described spiritual “chick flick” in “Hereafter” — possibly in response to recent murmurs that the studio may be trying to hide a stinker.
Tackling the subject of existence and life after death, the film is a three-pronged story centering on a reluctant psychic (Matt Damon, reuniting with Eastwood after “Invictus”) in San Francisco who has difficulty connecting with his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), a French television reporter (Cecilia de France) torn by her experiences in the 2004 Tsunami and a young boy affected by the accidental death of his twin brother (unknowns Frankie & George McClaren).
The trailer seems to paint Damon as the core of the story and, even though Eastwood recently revealed the actor shares his screen time equally with the three other leads but of course. He’s the only real star.
However his character is the center point as the stories converge and the characters are united by their own unique experiences with death and the afterlife. There also looks to be a significant and surprisingly believable use of SFX for de France’s plotline, which is definitely something different for Eastwood, but we do hold slight worries about the two unknowns British kids especially if they’ve got to hold a third of the film. Oh, and Sia’s “Lullaby” kicking off the trailer? Surely says something about the tone of the pic too.
Jay Mohr, Lyndsey Marshal and Richard Kind also co-star in the Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon”) scripted tale which hits theaters October 22nd, a week before Halloween, but not before screening at TIFF and closing the NYFF. [Apple]
