Film Talk, "Eternity"
Who would you choose to spend eternity with? Your first love, or the love you spent your life with? SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Eternity is about an elderly woman named Joan whose husband dies shortly before she does. Once she dies, she finds herself in a purgatory of sorts, one where both her loves are waiting for her. Her first husband who died at war, and her lifelong husband. The movie follows her as she decides which to spend her eternity with.
As I got through the first 30 minutes of the movie, I felt as though I could basically see the ending. Joan was going to pick Luke (her first husband). In my mind, I saw the movie going like this; Joan appreciates the love and experiences she had with her lifelong husband, Larry, but would pick Luke so she could have a chance at the life she could’ve had. And I was right, but then, I was wrong.
Joan did pick Luke, for all the reasons I assumed she would. But then she did something I wasn’t really expecting. She changed her mind. The whole time she was with Luke she was having a good time, but all she could think about was Larry. We saw this as she would go to this hall of memories (that each eternity had) daily just to be see him again.
PSST: The hall of memories is somewhere one could go to essentially relieve parts of your life.
However, eventually one day she’d had enough. She told Luke how she was feeling and he was hurt but ultimately understood and helped her get back to Larry and they ended up spending their eternities together.
I didn’t expect much from this movie going in, and I didn’t get much coming out, but it made me ponder. Yes, Joan did love Luke, and throughout her whole life she continued to love him. He was her first husband taken from her too soon, he was perfect, why wouldn’t she? But maybe that’s all he was meant to be. Maybe they weren’t meant to be forever. Maybe they were really just supposed to have each other for that short time. And who knows? Maybe if he would’ve come back from the war they would’ve gone on to live happy, long lives together. They would’ve gotten to grow together, to learn about each other together. But they didn’t. Her and Larry did.
"Love isn’t just one happy moment it’s a million and it’s bickering in the car and supporting someone when they need it. Its looking after each other.”
-Joan
To put it simply, Joan always missed what could’ve been, who she was, and who she loved, but unlike Luke, she got the chance to move on. Throughout the movie everyone keeps saying that Luke was perfect. And he was, because he wasn’t real. He was perfect because he got to be just “what could’ve been.” But Larry, Larry wasn’t perfect. He was flawed, but isn’t that what love is? Isn’t that what makes love real? And if we’re really thinking about it, for the most part Luke stayed exactly the same as the day he died because he didn’t get any more time to really grow and evolve. At least not in the real world, but Joan did. She lived a whole life and changed, what she wanted, who she was, it all changed. And it changed with Larry. So, yea, her love with Luke may have been magical, it may not have been what is was with Larry, but in the end that didn’t matter. She had 67 years to move on from him and ultimately, he was just a moment of her life, Larry was the whole thing.
Thank you to those who read to the end! If you like commentary like this please let me know and if you have any suggestions of things for me to write about let me know about that as well!