Tag Archives: callum-turner

Eternity (2025)

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June 22

Movie 22

Today’s June Swoon 5 film is one that I am torn about. It was on Apple TV and it was entitled Eternity, starring Elizabeth Olson, Miles Teller and Callum Turner.

According to IMDB, “In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.“

Elizabeth Olson played Joan, who spent 65 years married to Larry, played by Miles Teller. Larry died before Joan, as he choked on a pretzel. Joan died soon after from a terminal cancer. Joan was married once before to Luke, played by Callum Turner, who died during the Korean War.

When someone died, there is a waiting area where souls have to decide where their eternity is going to be spent. However, Luke had waited for Joan and now she had to make a decision between her first love and the man she spent her entrie life with.

There were several specific details that bothered me about this premise that stuck with me through the film. The entire idea of this afterlife bugged me. A soul has to pick an eternity and cannot change that choice. That means that you may never see family or friends unless they chose the same eternity. That was bothering me as the film moved on.

Another issue I have is the situation Joan is placed into by everyone around her. She had to choose between her two husbands and I think it is an unhappy premise of the story that was not something I liked.

All of these actors are great and they do excellent work, even though I am not a fan of the story. Da’Vine Joy Randolph played Anna, a soul who helps recently deceased souls with the transition. She was perhaps my favorite part of the film as she was wonderful once again.

The ending of the story, without any spoilers, was fair and helped to balance out my thoughts on the movie as a whole.

There were so many little details that bugged me about the film that it kept me from enjoying it fully. It was still a decent flick that I did not hate watching.

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

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June 6, 2024

Today’s June Swoon 3 movie was one that I actually had tickets for this past year, but I left the theater after seeing another movie first because I was not feeling well. After being unable to see this (Along with Ferrari too), I decided that I would wait for the June Swoon to watch this movie directed by George Clooney.

The Boys in the Boat is the true story of the Washington Huskies rowing team’s unlikely ascension to the 1936 Olympics with a junior team that lacked experience. Led by their coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), the group of eight young men exceeded all expectations in quest for an Olympic medal.

I enjoyed the actual rowing competitions filmed during this movie as they brought some real dramatics to a sport that might not have as much as some others. The races were well filmed and created suspense in scenes that were fairly predictable.

The film lacked a lot of characterization for the cast, focusing on Coach Ulbrickson and Joe Turner (Callum Turner), one of the crew. The rest of the crew of the row team were fairly simplistic, one-note characters, with a few minor traits tossed their way. Ironic how a sport that is so much about the team does not spend much time with the parts of that team.

The story itself was basic, taking most of the sport movie cliches into play. This was a basic, by-the-numbers sports flick that did not stray from the pattern much.

Having said that, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t inspired by the finale of the film, especially the final Olympic race. There was one final conflict that was tossed in at the end that felt rushed and did not pay off in the end.

If you come into The Boys in the Boat with the idea that this is a basic formulaic sports movie and that it does not go above that, there are things to enjoy here. I think this story could have been more than what was here, but there is something to say for formula.