Eternity Movie Review: Life After Love

Analyzing everlasting love through the afterlife, David Freyne’s Eternity is the most glorious and hilarious rom-com of 2025.

Eternity opens on an elderly couple, Joan (Betty Buckley, of Imaginary) and Larry (Barry Primus, of The Irishman), bickering on the drive to the gender reveal party one of their children is having. When they arrive at the party, they are swarmed by their children, their children’s spouses and their grandchildren, all vying for the couple’s attention. As Larry finds his way onto a recliner, Joan is pulled to look through a box of memorabilia found while one of their children was cleaning. 

When her granddaughter finds a photo of a young Joan in a wedding dress with a man who is not Larry, she asks questions, prompting Joan to explain how, before she met Larry, she was married to a man named Luke, who went to fight in the Korean War and never made it back home. When all the women of the family start commenting on how handsome Luke was, Larry gets up to add his two cents, but promptly chokes on the pretzels Joan was previously nagging him for eating too quickly. 

In the next moment, we meet Larry (Miles Teller, of Spiderhead) again, but now he looks the same as he did in his late thirties. He is on a train, taking him into “The Junction”. As he wanders off the train in a cloud of confusion, he is eventually met by Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, of The Holdovers), his afterlife coordinator, who confirms that Larry has, in fact, died. When the initial shock of this revelation subsides, she explains that Larry has a week in “The Junction”, which is the place people decide on where to spend their afterlife. 

While there are endless possibilities of where people can choose to spend their afterlife, Larry’s primary concern is waiting for Joan to show up, so they can decide where to go together. Just when Larry is about to throw in the towel, he sees Joan (Elizabeth Olsen, of His Three Daughters) appear in the afterlife and runs after her. 

Just when it seems like the two are about to decide on which eternity they wish to be in forever, Joan’s first husband, the handsome war hero Luke (Callum Turner, of Rose of Nevada), emerges from the crowd to protest he’s waited 67 years at “The Junction” for her so they could go to eternity together. Joan is now given a week to decide who she wants to spend eternity with: the man she shared her life with, or her first love, who she never got a real chance to live with. 

Eternity is a hilarious, spellbinding look at love through the eyes of death. Freyne’s afterlife is methodically built to raise questions of morality, longevity and self in the face of the most definitive decision a person can make. The absurd finality of the film’s overarching question firmly puts into perspective very real questions the audience could find themselves battling. Do you bet your hand on stability or passion? The known or the unknown? 

The question strips down ideations of love and soulmates entirely to make Joan try and understand what matters the most to her and what her definition of love is. Is it the undeniable bliss she feels when she sees Luke and remembers their young days together? Or is it the comfort she finds in Larry and the countless laughs they’ve shared over the years? 

The love triangle between the central trio works so well because, really, there is no wrong answer; both of these men were the great loves of her life. While the central question of the film – who does Joan want to spend eternity with? – points to the idea that we all only get one great love in our lives, the entirety of the movie shows us that love comes to us in many different forms over the course of our lives.

Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner are pure magic. Their interwoven dynamics are what make the central conflict of the story so captivating, as there is never a moment you, as an audience member, don’t feel conflicted yourself on who is the right choice for Joan. The chemistry between them, as well as the supporting cast of the scene-stealing Da’Vine Joy Randolph and electric John Early, allows the film to completely come alive. 

Eternity feels as if the impossible love triangle of Casablanca was thrown into the campiest version of The Truman Show. It’s a film that’s as visually stunning as it is physiologically stimulating, all while being impossibly funny. Every comedic mark is perfectly hit and every joke lands, all thanks to a core cast that delivers one of the best ensemble performances of 2025. It’ll have you leaving the theater with a different outlook on what true love looks like and a bit more of an appreciation for the moments in life that appear hopelessly fleeting but feel entirely fulfilling. 

Eternity will be released in US theatres on November 26, 2025 and in UK cinemas on December 5.