Whether you need a box of tissues to cry through the pain, or a bottle of water to recover from laughing, rom-coms have played a pivotal role in the movie world. David Freyne’s newest addition to this ever-growing genre, “Eternity,” rises to the challenge.

In this tragicomedy, Elizabeth Olsen stars as Joan Cutler, a woman who has just recently passed away from cancer. She wakes in the afterlife and learns the true functions of her eternity. After death, a person must choose their eternity, where they will spend the rest of their afterlife.

Larry Cutler, who is played by Miles Teller, is happy to learn that his wife Joan has joined him in the afterlife. They can live in their own forever, together. There is a problem though. Joan’s late husband who died in war, Luke (Callum Turner), has been waiting to go to his own eternity with Joan for 67 years. She can only choose one eternity to live in, one husband to stay with, one forever.

In this fictional afterlife, things work a little differently than what many watchers believe. After a person dies, they get to choose where they can spend the rest of their afterlives. The destinations can vary, with some choosing to stay at a beach and others to a 1950s movie. The big catch is once you choose an eternity, you cannot leave. All decisions are final, which brings a very prominent reminder to viewers how important Joan’s choice is.

Throughout the duration of this movie, my stress levels were having quite the field day. Our main character Joan has the decision of a lifetime to make, and she only has a week to make it. (Pun intended) 

Continuing this line of thought, history Teacher Abigail Shenot also felt the stress during the film.

“I couldn’t imagine myself in that situation,” Shenot said. “You could feel…Elizabeth Olsen’s character’s stress the whole time.” 

As the film progresses, Joan gets to experience both eternity’s and see what her decision will be. Whether she’s lounging on a beach or trekking a daunting hike, her afterlife is anything but boring! Although, when I initially started the movie, I did not expect her to have this much freedom in her choice. Trailers for the movie made it seem as though she was making her decision solely off of her interactions with both love interests, not a trial run for both men and their preferred eternities.

From the beginning of the movie to the end, the acting and emotions the characters portrayed truly pulled viewers in. Regardless of if a scene was meant to feel like pure heartbreak, or was meant to have you on the floor in laughter, this cast did not disappoint. Even in the most devastating scenes, pure wit prevents this film from being a full-fledged who-will-she-choose drama.

During the movie’s run, I could not help but feel that the pacing was leisurely at times. There were portions of the movie that felt a little drug out and made the film seem to move in slow-motion. It did not necessarily make the movie bad, as those scenes typically had enough comedic interludes to remain entertaining.

Not everyone felt this way though, such as freshman Lexie Akridge.

“I felt very invested in the movie,” Akridge said. “The plot was very fast-paced.”

Overall, this film did a fantastic job at pulling viewers in with a fairly unheard-of concept. It was an entertaining watch and touched on topics many rom-coms of the past have not. There were many humorous scenes that lightened the mood, along with some serious scenes that pulled at the heart strings. I’d recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys classic rom-coms or loves a true “Who will she choose?” trope!