- 9
...never is less than intriguing, right from its tour de force opening sequence, and often full of insights into why people long for answers, sometimes with great urgency.
—Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter
- 9
It is a curious movie in both senses of the word: an unusual experience and an open-ended inquiry into something nobody can really claim to understand. It leaves you wondering, which may be the most fitting way of saying that it's wonderful.
—A . O. Scott New York Times
- 9
This is a film for intelligent people who are naturally curious about what happens when the shutters close.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 9
It is a curious movie in both senses of the word: an unusual experience and an open-ended inquiry into something nobody can really claim to understand. It leaves you wondering, which may be the most fitting way of saying that it's wonderful.
—A. O. Scott New York Times
- 8
... a pensive saga that transcends death and lyrically examines our darkest fears and our most deeply held beliefs.
—Claudia Puig USA Today
- 7
...truly is haunting.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 7
...cuts back and forth among three stories in an increasingly gripping way.
—Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times
- 7
...a film that, at first, seems to haphazardly attempt to grapple with mortality, aka our collective future. These attempts are not wholly successful, but dismissing the sincerity and personal weight of Eastwood's film and the director's formidable filmmaking abilities would be deeply cynical.
—Chris Cabin filmcritic.com
- 6
...a cloudy and tremulous life-after-death drama...
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
- 6
An uneven but absorbing triptych of stories concerning the bonds between the living and the dead...
—Justin Chang Variety
- 5
...so sleepy it borders on narcoleptic.
—Noel Murray Onion AV Club
- 5
When an 80-year-old director turns his attention to death, you hope for some insight, or gravitas, or even whimsy or anger. Hereafter has none of that.
—Kyle Smith New York Post
- 5
Many admire this film to no end. I found its use of recent tragic events, including the London underground bombing, to be more than a little cheap.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 5
...should have a lot more life, but instead heads mournfully into the white light. Stay away!
—Matt Stevens E!
- 5
In Hereafter, as in the real world, an obsession with death means no life at all. [1 November 2010, p.37]
—Alynda Wheat People
- 4
Eastwood and Morgan are not con artists, but their awe here is so unblinking that their film comes across as a transcendent con job.
—Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor
- 3
Multiple story lines cross international borders to mix personal tragedy with post-9/11 existential terror: Hereafter is a mawkish mondo mistico, obvious, schematic, and sometimes subtitled.
—J. Hoberman Village Voice
- 3
Multiple story lines cross international borders to mix personal tragedy with post-9/11 existential terror: Hereafter is a mawkish mondo mistico, obvious, schematic, and sometimes subtitled.
—J. Hoberman LA Weekly
- 3
...a trifurcated tale of death, grief, and the great beyond that finds the director succumbing to eye-rolling corniness.
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine