“Eternity” is alternatively amusing and touching as a human comedy about afterlife, eternity, and love. While surely reminiscent of several other movies ranging from Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life” (1991) to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “After Life” (1998), the movie distinguishes itself to considerable degree via the smart and thoughtful handling of the very complicated afterlife situation among its three main characters, and their respective human choices around the end of the story will leave you something to reflect on later.

At the beginning, we are introduced to an old couple going to a little family meeting of theirs. As the husband drives their car, he and his wife bicker a lot with each other, but we sense how much they have been accustomed to each other for many years, especially when the wife requests her husband not to tell anything about her current medical condition to their children and grandchildren waiting for them,

However, ironically, the husband dies first at a very unexpected point, and then he finds himself on a train going to a sort of middle point between life and eternity. To his surprise, Larry (Miles Teller) now becomes as young as the happiest time in his life, and he also meets his Afterlife Coordinator (AC) Anna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is ready to guide him on his current situation. While temporarily staying in a huge place which looks like a mix between hotel, train station, convention building, he must choose a world where he will live for eternity, but, to his confusion and frustration, there are too many various options out there, as reflected by a big hall full of promotional booths respectively representing these numerous options.

Because the ultimate consequence of not making a choice is pretty dire to say the least, Larry must be really serious about what he really wants for eternity, but, just like many of us, he does not have any exact idea on his real wish and desire except missing his wife more than before. At least, he gets some consolation and support from a bartender named Luke (Callum Turner), who has remained there for more than 65 years just because he hopes to reunite with the woman he married not long before his untimely death.

Anyway, when Larry makes a decision and then is about to enter the realm of eternity, there comes another surprise for him. He instantly recognizes his wife even though she looks much younger now just like him, and Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is certainly happy to reunite with him, but, alas, it turns out that she is also the one Luke has been waiting for. As briefly shown to us around the beginning of the movie, she married and then lost Luke shortly before meeting and marrying Larry, and, despite her long and enduring relationship with Larry, she still loves Luke even though many years passed since his unfortunate death.

Now this is surely a familiar case of romantic triangle, but the screenplay by director David Freyene and his co-writer Pat Cunnane steadily maintains a delicate balance among its three main characters. Larry and Luke sincerely try to win Joan’s heart in the end, and Anna and her close colleague Ryan (John Early), who is incidentally an AC assigned to Joan, generously provide Luke and Larry a chance to persuade Joan more. They are going to show Joan each own chosen eternity, and then Joan should make a choice between these different two options.

Because both Luke and Larry have each own pros and cons, we can clearly discern why Joan feels so conflicted between these two men in her life. In fact, we are not so surprised when there comes what can be regarded as the possible third option later in the story. Maybe this is a more sensible (and practical) one than the two other ones, but she only becomes all the more conflicted than before.

While you may have a pretty good idea on what will happen in the end, the movie keeps us engaged as deftly swinging back and forth between drama and comedy. Just like Joan, Larry and Luke are really sincere about their respective feelings, and there is some poignancy in how they and Joan come to learn more about love and acceptance along the story. The gravitas of their complicated situation is complemented well by a number of small but witty comic moments to notice, and I was particularly amused by the silly promotions on those various kinds of eternity.

The movie surely depends a lot on the good comic chemistry between its three main performers. While Elizabeth Olsen ably holds the middle ground, Mile Teller and Callum Turner smoothly go up and down along the narrative as demanded, and they are all convincing as flawed but complex human figures we can care more about. Around these three main performers, John Early, Olga Merediz, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph have each own little comic moment to be savored, and Randolph, who has been more prominent thanks to her recent Oscar-winning supporting turn in “The Holdovers” (2023), certainly steals the show whenever she appears on the screen.

In conclusion, “Eternity” does earn its laughs and tears in the end, and it made me muse more on life and whatever may exist beyond that. To be frank with you, I usually find eternity rather dreadful while also not believing that much in afterlife, but the eternity presented in this funny film does not seem that bad, and I will probably be really serious if there is an option of living forever in my several special days at the 2010 Ebertfest.