November 17, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
Note: This review was written based on an advanced secret screening earlier this month.
In the afterlife of “Eternity,” the passage of time is simply reflected by backdrops changing outside the window of a hotel room intended to be purgatory. The hollow, ever-changing view outside that hotel window ends up becoming a fitting metaphor for “Eternity” itself — an idea that promises depth and wonder but ultimately reveals how thin and fragile it is up close.
Like the many options offered to Larry and Joan for their eternity destination, there are too many ideas circulating in “Eternity,” but not much after a while, making the movie something cinephiles shouldn’t rush to include in their holiday moviegoing plans.
It’s clear that director David Freyne may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew with “Eternity”, as the wide tonal shifts of the screenplay from Pat Cunnane feel unbalanced and haphazard, especially for an A24 production. There’s a clear vision in the saccharine-sweet visual style of the film and in the defined, nostalgic performances from the trio of leads that show exactly what Freyne was aiming for, but there’s a clunkiness to the execution that’s readily evident on the big screen.
Miles Teller is the epitome of comfort as Larry, a man who has spent over 60 years doing whatever he needs to do to make his wife happy. It feels, from the outside looking in, like he’s trapped in a relationship dynamic between Joan and her first husband that he simply can’t navigate around.
There’s an overly warm, almost classic Dick Van Dyke–era shtick to Teller’s affectation that comes across more sweet and sincere opposite Elizabeth Olsen than it does when he is faced with his romantic rival. Yet the casting of Teller in this role feels awkward and clunky.
While he tries his best, there’s a certain uneasy awkwardness to his performance as Larry that feels disjointed — though it’s unclear whether that comes from his inability to find his way into the role or from lacking direction that fails to guide him into the right emotional space.
Strongest of the trio of leads is Elizabeth Olsen, who brings gravitas and a strong emotional energy to a romantic comedy that certainly doesn’t need it. There’s an energy to her quirky performance as Joan, a woman torn between her two life partners, and her Lucille Ball–esque charm radiates off the screen though it has a tendency to overwhelm both of her co-stars throughout.
For love triangles to truly work, audiences need to be equally invested in all three characters so the pivotal choice has real stakes for the film as a whole. If even one link in that chain falters, the will-they-won’t-they aspect of the narrative falls completely on its face.
It isn’t that the central premise of Eternity doesn’t work because Callum Turner’s performance is bad; rather, it’s that the way his Luke is written — borderline overbearing — paints Turner into a corner he can’t find his way out of. Framing Luke as the long-lost husband whose enduring love knows no time is fine, but how much of the disdain he has for Larry soaks into his relationship with Joan feels excessively callous and not in keeping with the more whimsical elements of the film.
Because eternity in this world construct requires afterlife coordinators, Oscar-winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early are tasked with keeping this bizarre love triangle on track and pointed toward the forever. Early provides demonstrative sass that brings a lot of the comedic humor, while Randolph propels the film forward with a kinetic energy that overwhelms Teller in their scenes together and sometimes feels tonally different from the rest of the movie altogether though her performance might be the best in the entire film.
Thinking about forever may be a whimsical exercise for a filmmaker to craft a movie around, yet there’s something a touch hollow about “Eternity” that may leave audiences a bit flat-footed this holiday season, as if the film itself is stuck in the same emotional limbo it creates.
While cinephiles may want to add this quirky comedy into their moviegoing habits this Thanksgiving, there’s not quite enough underneath the surface to make it a must-see on the big screen.
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