They often say that they don’t make them like they used to. Once in a while, a film tries to debunk that accusation. Eternity is one such film, a screwball romantic comedy that takes the beats and rhythms of past movies and gives them a modern edge. While it might not be entirely successful, you have to give credit for trying. This is a movie with its heart in the right place, filled with innovative ideas, and a likeable cast that, no matter how bizarre it gets, keeps things going.

Larry dies after eating a pretzel and finds himself in a waiting zone in the afterlife. With options of areas to live out his years, he decides he wants to wait for his loving wife, Joan, to join him. However, when she does arrive, he finds she has to make a decision: live out her time with Larry, or rekindle the relationship she had with her first husband, Luke, who died in the Korean War and has been waiting for her for over 60 years.

The plot does sound incredibly far-fetched, but then it does borrow heavily from classic films like Here Comes Mr Jordan and A Matter of Life and Death. Co-writer and director David Freyne obviously has a love for the old comedies of the 30s and 40s, and uses this to create a world that is both colourful and imaginative. The afterlife waiting area is a mix of hotel luxury, a marketplace brimming with stalls selling zones for the dead to move onto, and a crowded train station where people arrive and wait to move on.

The zones being sold to unsuspecting arrivals cover every imaginative world, from living in log cabins in mountain areas, to a museum zone where one man tries to escape, screaming he cannot look at another piece of art again. This is where you will live your days forever. You could make a series of movies just about these, but this is a romantic comedy-drama about making tough decisions.

The central storyline involving the triangular relationship among Joan, Larry, and Luke raises plenty of moral issues. Do you choose the man with whom you have spent most of your life and continue that in the afterlife? Or do you go with the man you initially loved and lost? This throws us some interesting ideas and comic moments (there is a running gag about Korea not being a proper war and that the only thing that came out of it was M*A*S*H!). The constant bickering and one-upmanship between Larry and Luke cause significant issues for Joan, who is forced into making a decision.

The film isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny and on occasions, it does slip into sentimentality, but it does make a change to see a movie that wants us to forget the issues and problems the world is facing and spend time with people who are just plain likeable.

The cast is all delivering their A-game. Miles Teller, who has had a chequered career, with Whiplash being a high point, is ideally suited as Larry, the husband who has lived with Joan the longest and who wants things to stay that way. It’s nice to see him given the chance to prove he is a solid comic actor. Callum Turner uses his handsome good looks to his advantage as Luke. At the same time, Elizabeth Olsen moves away from her Scarlet Witch persona and channels her inner Katharine Hepburn as Joan, the woman caught in this moral dilemma.

That said, the star of the film is Oscar-winning Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Anna, Larry’s personal adviser in this waiting zone. She shines throughout, delivering some of the best lines, the funniest reactions, and just lighting up the screen every time she appears. She is proving, as she did in The Holdover and the TV series Only Murders in the Building, to be a comedy force to be reckoned with.

Eternity isn’t perfect, but it does bring a breath of fresh air with its world-building and reminds you just how much fun screwball comedies are.

3 out of 5

Director: David Freyne

Starring: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, John Early, Christie Burke, Danny Mac, Damon Scott Johnson

Written by: David Freyne and Patrick Cunnane

Running Time: 114 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 5th December 2025