STORYLINE: In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive. (IMDb)

    Do you remember when you first saw Juliet met her Romeo?  Maybe When Harry Met Sally?  How about when the beast found his beauty?  Romance in cinema is a tale as old as time.  The latest tale, Eternity, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller, now illuminates silver screens.

   There are two clear types of romance films. The first are the dramas, such as Brokeback Mountain (2005).  Other films, and the more popular, are the comedic films, like Anyone But You (2023). Eternity is the ladder, a romantic comedy.  

   It is a rarity in the genre because it is about death.  I am fully aware of the contradiction of that most recent sentence.  The set up, of the feature, is Elizabeth Olsen’s Joan deciding which love of her life to spend her afterlife with, as they compete for her affections.  The core setup of abt rom com is there, with the twist of death.

    You can see the origins of Eternity in Warren Beatty’s classic Heaven Can Wait (1974).  Instead of a return to earth concept for this rom com, the film keeps the story in the afterlife. It works.  

    I walked into the film with a hunch of how the film would end.  I walked out of the theater right. Eternity was predictable, almost painfully so.  There were moments of charm throughout.  Where there enough to elevate the film?  Elevate it to mediocrity.

   Eternity is a pretty predictable and mediocre rom com.  Long gone are the golden age of the genre, the nineties. 

    Until next time o will see you at the movies!