Miroua Week 1: Till Death Don't Us Part
Eternity movie poster from A24
One movie that I watched over the summer was Eternity, a 2025 rom-com starring Elizabeth Olson, Callum Turner, and Miles Teller. Honestly, I didn’t really have high expectations for this movie. I never heard anything about it. But the premise was interesting. (Major spoilers ahead.)
In the movie, when people die, they arrive as their happiest self in the afterlife, which is essentially a train station for dead people. They get one week to choose where to spend their eternity, like during the Great Depression (for whatever reason) or in outer space.
Now for the interesting part: Elizabeth Olson’s character, Joan, arrives in the afterlife, and she has to choose between spending her eternity with her husband of 65 years or her first love who tragically died in battle and has waited 67 years for her.
Joan is understandably conflicted. Both men spend time with her over the week to help her decide. And she ends up picking…Karen. She picks her friend Karen. She just couldn’t make the choice.
It doesn’t end there. As Joan gets on the train to her eternity with Karen, Larry tells her to pick Luke because her hair is long. In her relationship with Larry, Joan’s hair was always short, therefore she was the happiest with Luke.
This made sense to everyone, including me, so she goes with Luke. They seem happy, but Joan just can’t stop thinking about Larry. She realizes that she made the wrong choice and needs to go back. Luke helps her, and she finds Larry.
Joan tells Larry that she was the happiest with Luke because there wasn’t anything hard about their relationship. They were young, and they didn’t have to deal with anything hard. So she and Larry go spend their eternity in the same neighborhood they spent their life in.
I really enjoyed this movie because of the late realization that Joan changed throughout her life. To me, the obvious choice was always Luke. It was even clear in how Joan appeared in the afterlife.
But that Joan and the Joan that was married to Larry were different. There were probably many different “Joans” throughout her marriage with Larry. Joan can still love both of them, and they both clearly mean a lot to her. Luke will always be a part of Joan’s life and shape who she is.
But ultimately, Larry has a bigger part in Joan’s life. They had a family together, tackled every struggle together, and spent 65 years together.
Do I agree with Joan’s choice? Truthfully, I’m still on the fence. It would have been interesting for her to get to know Luke, spend all the time that they never got to have together. It was an opportunity to experience something new and different from what she had most of her life.
But picking Larry is safe, reasonable, and what Joan wanted. Imagine if you pick the wrong person to spend eternity with. What about you? Team Luke or Team Larry?
Miroua, I personally believe that Larry is the better choice for Joan for two reasons. First, Larry willingly convinced Joan to go with Luke. It is important to understand that Larry must love Joan from the bottom of his heart, but his acknowledgement of her indecisive nature and his willingness to let her go for her own benefit highlight his priority of making sure Joan feels comfortable rather than worrying about himself.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, Larry has proven his dedication to supporting her throughout their sixty-five years together. You even mention that they had a family and must have gone through various conflicts and struggles, which suggests that Larry likely knows Joan far better than Luke does. Some people may argue that Luke never had the chance to prove his loyalty to Joan, and they would be right. Despite this, it is difficult to assess whether the relationship between the two of them, especially at such a young age, would have been long-lasting. All roads lead to Larry.
I really enjoyed reading this response, and it has inspired me to see this movie myself. However, I have a clarification question: You mention that Joan had a week to decide whom she would spend the rest of her time in the afterlife with, but how was she able to be with Larry after initially choosing Luke? I thought that Joan was bound to Luke.
I watched “Eternity” as well, and I found the situation interesting! I am team Luke, because he is significantly more attractive than Larry. That casting choice was intentional of course. Luke is portrayed to be this long gone lover made of nothing but a chiseled face and an endless yearning for a woman who has moved on. He is the representation of a dream, but living in a dream (or with a dream) forever is not ideal, which is why Joan ultimately chooses Larry. Joan and Larry’s love holds mistakes like any other relationship does, but it also holds experience and growth that can not be recreated with another man, even if he is instantly good looking. So, I guess I am team Luke for a dream and team Larry for reality. If it was an easy choice to make, they would not have made a film of it!
ReplyDeleteHi Miroua. I haven’t seen the movie personally yet but my little brother had been urging me to for the longest time. Through your blog, I may know the outcome of the movie but it does not fully kill my curiosity of wanting to know what were the reasons and the actual material behind her choice. As for my choice, without ever seeing the movie, I am not able to give you a definitive answer just yet.
ReplyDeleteA choice between your first love and your long term husband seems like an awkward but emotional decision to me. To truly look into it, you must consider the two sides’ key differences. In my uneducated opinion on this particular topic, I like to think that while Luke represents a pure emotion of youth, romance and happiness through her experiences of bliss and happiness—Larry represents a strong bond built through struggle, hardship and everything in between.
So, for now, my temporary answer will be Team Larry. Since I believe that true love is not only built upon happiness, but the time people spend together through both positive and negative ends of their lives. It’s the patience, understanding and forgiveness that forms through these times that can truly be called a bond.
Your breakdown of Joan’s dilemma was super engaging, especially your point that she was simply a different person with each man rather than one choice being purely “right”. They way you unpacked the contrast between the effortless nostalgia of youth with Luke versus the battle-tested, 65 year history with Larry made me reflect on how easily we romanticize “what could have been.” To make your review even stronger, you could expand slightly on that wild plot point where she picks her friend, Karen. It adds such a funny, relatable human beat to an otherwise overwhelming afterlife decision. I definitely lean Team Larry myself, for the exact reasons you mentioned.
ReplyDelete