Clint Eastwood, who is 80, is at the top of his game.  I’m not suggesting that Hereafter is better than Million Dollar Baby (which is think is a masterpiece) or Invictus or Flags of Our Fathers or Letters from Iwo Jima or even Gran Torino.  Hereafter doesn’t surpass those films, or Mystic River, for that matter, but it does hold its own.

This is a film about the afterlife that doesn’t make me feel either squeamish or letdown.  It poses questions and weaves storylines like a less sprawling John Irving novel.  Eastwood, who is perhaps best-known for his roles as a macho gunslinger or a hardboiled detective, has directed a film that suggests there is more to life and to death than we can know, but that things do tend to work out over time if we let them.

Eastwood has tamed the metaphysical in the sense that he provides no answers to these eternal questions but does suggest that there is reason to hope.  As I said, Hereafter is not one of Eastwood’s masterworks, but it does demonstrate his skill as a director and his willingness at the age most directors stop making films – or should stop making films – that he is eager to take on new cinematic territory.

I have no idea where Clint Eastwood’s next movie will take me.  I just know that I’m ready for the ride and – fully realizing that I’m about to make a bad pun here – I have to tell you that I am ready for Clint Eastwood to make my day.