Eternity

Rated PG-13 • Theaters

In the Gospels, the Sadducees try to stump Jesus with a ­theological conundrum. They offer a hypothetical situation in which a woman married a man who then died. Afterward she married his brother, who then died. This happened five more times. They ask Jesus which of the seven men is her husband in the resurrection. I kept thinking of this pericope while watching A24’s new film Eternity.

In Eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) dies. Her husband of 65 years, Larry (Miles Teller), is waiting for her in the afterlife, but he’s not alone. Luke (Callum Turner) thinks he has a greater claim on her affection. He’s Joan’s first husband who died in war shortly after their marriage, and he’s waited 67 years to be reunited with his wife. Due to the afterlife’s bureaucratic rules, Joan has one week to decide which man she’ll spend eternity with.

When faced with the Sadducees’ absurd scenario, Jesus responded, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). His answer sums up my thoughts on Joan’s dilemma in Eternity.

Some Christians will be turned off by the movie’s depiction of the afterlife. There’s no heaven or hell. The newly deceased find themselves in a mid-­century modern train station. God doesn’t run things. Instead an extensive bureaucracy moves souls through the station to their final destinations. Those destinations seem more like retirement communities than eternal paradise. The options are countless but narrow: For example, souls can opt for beach world, mountain world, or even a version of Paris where everyone speaks English with a French accent.

One might shrug off this theologically problematic depiction of the afterlife as a metaphor through which the movie attempts to say something interesting about love, marriage, and the path not taken. But after looking past the irreverence, one finds that the movie lacks a thought-provoking subtext.

Joan’s decision regarding the love of her life never feels in doubt, but she dithers and worries about what to do. The movie fails to challenge our society’s shallow and misguided notions about the meaning of marriage, affirming the idea that marriage is a means to self-­fulfillment. When talking about this scenario, Jesus says we won’t be married in the age to come because we won’t die (Luke 20:36), implying that since procreation will no longer be necessary to preserve the human race, marriage itself will not be necessary. And when we think of marriage as a picture of Christ and His church, we realize that marriage isn’t fundamentally about us and our subjective sense of finding “the one.” Eternity tells us that marriage is about finding the right feeling—after you’ve sampled some other feelings on offer.

If Eternity were just a fun, light-hearted romantic comedy, one still might be tempted to let its shallow themes and bad theology slide, but this is not a sweet little rom-com. The film pushes the boundaries of its PG-13 rating with crudities, coarse talk, and a scene of sensuality. There are a few truly funny moments, especially those involving actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph who plays Joan’s “afterlife consultant.” But on the whole, the film substitutes perverse joking for the witty banter and gentle humor found in the best romantic comedies. And the frisson of passion is wholly absent. The emotional stakes are much too low in this movie in which eternity is supposedly on the line.