Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hereafter: The Movie Art Imitates Life

Even though this movie will make you squirm in your seat much like a real life horror movie, it also satisfies. It is said that "Art imitates Life" and this was never more true than in this movie. Though it tends not to be a commercial success because it is just "Too Real" in every way and therefore very uncomfortable for almost anyone to see something "This Real", it also depicts both death and after death as they usually actually are which is more than most people are ever ready to deal with.

Most all people approach death by running from it, and facing it full on like this movie does is way too uncomfortable for most people without sort of having a real out of body experience or fainting. And when you compare this movie to an action flick it falls short because the point of this movie is less to entertain than it is to take seriously the issue of death and what actually comes after.

The real problem of death and what comes after is that it is sort of subjective i.e. most people can't talk to the dead. So, since everyone doesn't appear to share this experience (at least willingly) the movie is very very disturbing because the point of it is not to scare you within an inch of your life like a horror movie but to have you question what your death and everyone's death is actually all about. It does this by facing two or more people's deaths and combining that with someone (Matt Damon) who plays the part of an intuitive who actually talks with the dead in an accurate way (not in some fake way). So, this movie is about real life and death experiences and asks the question, "How are you going to deal with your own death and the deaths of all those you know who pass away?"

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