Eastwood, ever the shrewd and expedient filmmaker, set out to make a movie which might inform its audience on the hereafter and has succeeded nicely, creating a viewing experience which approximates death. Over the years, Clint has aimed high and as often as not, managed to pull it off, albeit a bit too glossy for my taste, but here it just doesn't work. I never felt 'connected' to the characters, was never able to develop any empathy for them.Compartmentalizing the story into three distinct parts means we're watching three short stories not one long, organic narrative. I think it was a huge error to do subtitles in the early going, it effectively put up an emotional wall. I'm sure the actors, an attractive pair of continental types, were emoting all over the place while I was reading. The wow special effects remained just that, special effects, the underlying human tragedy befell strangers. Even the two French leads had, at this point, not been developed, just a couple of privileged vacationers. Matt Damon, a swell actor in most settings is poorly cast here. His range and physicality seem to deny him torment. He's prohibitively good-looking, athletic, with a quick and winning smile and we're asking him to play 'torment'? When he tries 'torment' it comes across as 'befuddlement'. Adrian Brody would have been the wiser choice. The film is littered with brief, one-dimensional encounters, the cooking school instructor, cooking class partner, the publisher, all there to simply move the narrative along with not enough business of their own to imply they actually have lives beyond their meager business here. At one point, Matt-the-medium does a reading for his cooking class partner, a tall, slender, dark-haired girl. He starts off by saying, 'I see a tall, slender, dark-haired woman,' he looks up asking, 'your mother?' The girl seems surprised. Puhleeze. It's obvious the early reviews were posted by people with a vested interest in the movie, industry apparatchiks ginning up some positive buzz. I gave it four stars for the two English kids and the wave.
