via A24
We spend our lives wondering what comes next. Is it a celestial kingdom? A reincarnation loop? Or perhaps, just nothingness? In David Freyne’s new film, Eternity the answer is far more terrifyingly mundane: it looks like a trade show on a convention center floor.
Co-written with Pat Cunnane, Eternity presents a vision of the great beyond that is less about harps and halos and more about red tape and aggressive marketing. It is a world where the newly deceased are “hawked every type of eternity,” from a “Man-Free World” to a “Capitalism World.” Yet, anchored within this high-concept comedy is a deeply emotional core, a love triangle that defies the boundaries of life and death.
When I describe the film to him as “The Notebook for the afterlife,” Freyne laughs. “I will absolutely take that description,” he says. “We wanted it to feel like a romantic comedy in the vein of older school ones like Billy Wilder and Sturges, albeit with a very modern sensibility.”
The film features a powerhouse ensemble cast including Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Callum Turner, John Early, Olga Merediz, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. At the center is Joan (Olsen), a woman faced with an impossible choice between her two great loves: the husband she spent her life with (Teller) and the soldier she loved who died young (Turner).
“It’s an impossible decision for Lizzie’s character,” Freyne explains. “Nobody would begrudge her choosing to explore the life she missed out on, the thing that was kind of ripped from her. Similarly, to continue with the man she’s been with most of her life is also—nobody would begrudge that.”
This central conflict transforms the film from a mere comedy into a debate on the road not taken. Freyne notes that while the relationships look ideal on paper, the film peels back the layers to reveal the “idiosyncratic idiosyncrasies” of human connection. “It was really important to me that the audience kind of debates whether she does or doesn’t make the right choice,” he says. “We have our ‘Team Lukes’ and we have our ‘Team Larrys.'”
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The setting for this romantic dilemma is one of the film’s greatest triumphs. Freyne admits he has dreamed of creating his own version of the afterlife since he was a kid. The result is a bureaucratic nightmare that feels suspiciously like the real world.
“You die, and you hope, you go somewhere celestial and beautiful and heavenly, and you end up in just a chaotic tourism expo,” Freyne says. “I just loved the ridiculous, almost mundanity of that. It was great fodder for comedy, but also a great pressure cooker in which to have our characters’ dilemma.”
Among the absurd options available to the deceased, Freyne cites “Capitalism World” as a personal favorite design (“I almost want to put it on my wall”), though he holds a special place in his heart for a gag that didn’t make the final cut: “Weimar Germany, minus the Nazis.”
Navigating this world alongside Olsen are Miles Teller and Callum Turner, whose on-screen dynamic Freyne describes as a joy to witness. While Teller and Turner are often known for dramatic intensity, Eternity allows them to flex different muscles. Freyne was particularly excited to see Turner embrace comedy.
“He hadn’t done comedy in such a long time… I was just really excited to stretch that muscle and see him go full Albert Brooks,” Freyne says of Turner’s character, Luke. “He really understood the depth and the insecurities… the idea that actually, he’s just a very insecure man in stasis.”
The chemistry between the two male leads became a driving force of the production. “I loved just those moments of almost bloody comedy between them,” Freyne recalls. “They kind of become teenage boys together… They were genuinely kind of jealous of each other. They would come in going, ‘What did you do with Lizzie yesterday in the shoot?'”
Freyne is quick to clarify that this envy was strictly rooted in the work—a testament to their immersion in the roles rather than real-life friction. “That was lovely… of the characters, I should stress,” he notes. “It was a really exciting thing to see, just how much they put into it and how much they got on.” Ultimately, that bond was crucial, as Freyne views the relationship between the two men as “just as important as some of the other relationships in the film.”
“They nailed it,” he adds of the performance.
Stealing scenes from the periphery are the “conductors” of this afterlife, played by John Early and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Written as a sort of Greek Chorus to lay out the rules of the universe, the duo brought so much to the roles that Freyne found himself writing new scenes for them during production.
“They are so hilarious,” Freyne says. “Dave vine is such a scene stealer… They give those characters a kind of weird depth which I wasn’t quite expecting. You kind of feel their past and you feel what they’ve gone through.”
Ultimately, Eternity is a “wonderful, quirky little thoughtful film” that uses the lens of death to examine how we live. It asks the audience to consider the choices they make and the connections they forge. For Freyne, the setting is secondary to the sentiment.
“Making a film on the afterlife weirdly made us think a lot about our lives rather than death,” Freyne reflects. “Our lives are short things, no matter—even a long life is a short thing. And it really is what you make of it when you’re alive.”
As the film heads to audiences, Freyne hopes it finds its place not just as a comedy but as a comfort watch that stands beside the greats of the genre.
“I just want to make people laugh, and I want to make them maybe cry,” he says. “I’d love if people watched it and had those conversations themselves… about what’s important to us in our lives, reflecting on our own loves and happiness.”
Eternity hits theaters Wednesday, November 26th.