A review of David Freyne’s Eternity
Eternity
a film directed by David Freyne and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 4–14, 2025
Death is humanity’s great unknown: we are constantly faced with the vast uncertainty of what happens when our mortal, physical bodies cease functioning. Where do we go after we die? David Freyne offers his take in Eternity, a film that follows Larry’s departure from the world after choking on a pretzel.
Larry (Miles Teller) is transported to a bustling metropolis populated with other wayward souls, discovering that he has been transformed into his younger self. Larry’s wife, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), now younger, arrives in the afterlife a week after his passing, having suffered a short battle with terminal cancer. Upon arrival, Joan learns that her first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), who died in the Korean War, had spent the last 67 years waiting for her. The couple’s reunion provokes a deep tenderness. A glossy dreamlike glaze forms over Joan’s eyes as years of love, grief, and loss come flooding back to her. Yet, this nostalgia is shattered when Larry blindly inserts himself, dissolving the emotional peak of their reunion. The narrative is overtaken by the tension of an unexpected love triangle met with drastically high stakes: who will Joan choose to spend her eternity with?
Eternity is hilarious just as much as it is emotionally provoking. We’re constantly faced with the absurdity of the world’s structure, and even within the certainty of an afterlife, uncertainty stands. Freyne’s worldbuilding is uncertain in and of itself, with the characters’ knowledge of the afterlife being limited. When gaps in the narrative exist, they are filled by the acceptance of the unknown. There is no clear explanation for how this complex metropolis functions, only that it exists for the purpose of transporting individuals between death and eternity. Eternity does not demand the extraordinary, but rather appreciates the beauty of the mundane. This film ultimately presents the viewer with a largely agnostic view of the afterlife, one not defined by great suffering or pleasure, yet by the relief of contentment.
The film pits passion against certainty, as Joan’s relationship with Luke is muddled with love and the pain of sustained longing. In contrast, Joan’s relationship with Larry is playfully comfortable. They bicker frequently over menial things, fundamentally disagree on where they would like to spend their eternity, and generally do not maintain a romantic ‘spark.’ Eternity highlights the beauty in the human ability to sustain multiple ‘true’ loves throughout one’s lifetime. Joan was lucky to share a profound connection with more than one person, and despite what her decision ultimately may be, there is value in the fact that she has loved deeply.
While the film is centred on the afterlife and the human imaginings of what that may entail, it is also largely focused on the blessings granted to humanity. Freyne’s depiction of love, joy, grief, and loss reminds the viewer that despite the desire to discover what comes after this life, no other life is promised to us besides the current one.