Exploring ‘Love’ Through Eternity (2025)

Staff Writer Isabel Ng Cardoso ruminates on the different forms of love and relationships explored in David Freyne’s Eternity (2025)—a breathe of fresh air in the romcom genre that is sure to leave an impression for eternity–with curated playlists to enhance your experience!

This review contains spoilers.

As a (self-proclaimed) romcom connoisseur, I was ready and seated in the theatre from the moment the trailer for David Freyne’s highly anticipated film Eternity (2025) dropped. The fact that the film also stars three of my celebrity crushes meant that there was no way I was not catching it as soon as it was released in cinemas. And trust me, it did not disappoint at all.

All of us are familiar with the love triangle trope in romcoms, but in Eternity’s case, our main characters are dead– or rather, in the transitional space between their chosen eternity and their initial death. Whilst that alone, is an interesting premise, it’s not the only factor that makes Eternity such a breath of fresh air in the romcom genre since perhaps 10 Things I Hate About You was released in 1999, About Time in 2013, or dare I say, Tangled in 2010. 

Image taken from Frame Rated

The film opens with  Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), an incredibly loveable character whose warm and witty personality permeates through the screen within the first few minutes. At the same time, we are introduced to her patient and pretzel-loving husband of 67 years, Larry (Miles Teller). During the family’s get-together for one of their  children’s gender reveal party, the audience is given a glimpse of her first husband– the charming Luke (Callum Turner)– who died while serving during the Korean War, thus causing the two’s abrupt and tragic separation. 

Image taken from Beauty Journal

Aside from our three main characters, we also have our comic-relief Afterlife Coordinators (ACs), Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Ryan (John Early) who guide Larry and Joan respectively as they enter the afterlife. I’d have to say, their performances were brilliant, effectively elevating the charm of this film. The scenes where they banter with each other were my favourite. I absolutely loved watching their dynamic on screen as well– it is hardly surprising that Freyne decided to write in more scenes featuring the two during filming itself when their chemistry lent the film’s more comedic moments with authenticity. 

These ACs essentially tell their client everything they need to know about their new reality– that they have died and that they need to pick an eternity which they had to commit to, well, forever. The number of possible eternities are endless, and so to make the newly-deceased’s choice (slightly) easier, each eternity is paired with a salesperson advertising their eternity via booths and posters on walls. There’s Smokers’ World (because smoking can’t kill you twice), Man-Free World (sadly at full capacity), 1930s-Germany (but now 100% Nazi-free!) and many more. It’s clear a lot of thought and effort has been given to the world-building, every detail made to be compelling even just in passing. This alone really pulled me into this world further, and I found myself even hoping for a potential sequel where Freyne could expand on these different eternities. Perhaps a story following different individuals in each eternity and how their experience there reflects on their character, dreams, and desires they had when they were alive? Just some food for thought. 

Now, back to the plot. 

I found Eternity to be more than a mere romcom with a love-triangle at its crux. Instead, it is an exploration of different forms of love– mediated through a woman’s lived experiences. We are shown how time, memory, and love has shaped her into different versions of herself, and it showcases that love exists in many different forms, and all of them are equally as meaningful and profound. 

Image taken from RTE

With Luke, Joan tasted immense passion, the innocence of young love, and idealised happiness (which is why the appearance she takes on after death is when she was with Luke, since the form you take is contingent on the moment when you were happiest before your death). Their time together marked a version of love which burns brightly and briefly, preserved forever in memory because it was never given the opportunity to grow old and turn previously exciting acts of love into the repeated mundane. Luke, in many ways, represents the all-elusive ‘What-If’ type of love: the life Joan could have had if not for their tragic separation. This kind of love tends to tug at one's heartstrings whenever a faint memory of that passion pops up in one’s mind over the years. Untainted but also devastatingly incomplete. 

Image taken from FilmSpeak

That doesn’t mean that Joan loved Larry any less of course; the two’s connection and deep understanding for each other’s quirks was a feature which was touched on throughout the film, and something which I found really sweet. Especially profound was the scene where Larry told Joan to do squats to feel better– a hilarious scene that also highlights the extent to which Larry knew Joan. To be loved is to be known, after all. Their love was steadier, quieter, and arguably more complex. This love was made up of all kinds of moments throughout the years, be it mundane routines, fired-up arguments or private jokes. Ultimately, the reason why their love lasted so long is because of the unspoken understanding that comes from intentionally choosing to stick by each other every single day, through the bad times and the good ones. Joan’s relationship with Larry represented the kind of love which is shaped not by fantasy, but by loyalty and consistency. 

What Freyne does beautifully is his tender care to these different forms of love. He refuses to pit  these loves against each other, evidently seen in Joan’s initial decision to choose neither of them– a choice I believe to be Freyne’s way of showcasing love’s selflessness. Moreover, he lets Joan experience a day with each of her husbands in their chosen eternity without interruption to aid her in making a decision between the two (since the husbands refused to go by the Challengers (2024) route). He portrays each experience to be as real, intimate, and important as the other, allowing the notion that each type of love is shaped by circumstance and the person Joan was at each stage of her life to shine through.

And here’s where I began bawling harder than I already have– the scene where Larry pushes through the crowd and runs towards the train Joan was on, to encourage her to spend her eternity with Luke instead of being alone (although she was with Karen, but she’s more a friend than a lover). He knew Joan needed closure with Luke in order to truly be happy, even if that meant losing her forever. This moment solidified to me that Larry truly was the one for her, because love is all about sacrifice and compromise; and Larry’s arc is arguably the embodiment of a selfless love which finds its completion in the act of prioritising your soulmate’s happiness and peace over your own.

I truly loved how Freyne went with this route as it allows the ‘What-Ifs’ to be answered, showing us how incompatible Luke and Joan were at the end of the day, since the Joan he knew before his death, is not the same Joan that arrived in eternity. Joan realises this as well, of course, which allows her to make her final choice to return to Larry despite the risk of being thrown to the Void forever.

Image taken from High On Films

Ultimately, Joan and Luke’s relationship wasn’t allowed to mature while they were alive, and now that they finally had time for it to grow, their individual puzzle pieces simply do not fit anymore– and that’s okay. Love doesn’t simply disappear because of incompatibility, it just means that you’ll have to support each other from a distance, something which materialises on-screen when Luke helped to distract the guard of the archive tunnels and sent Joan off to find Larry whom she eventually spends eternity with. 

By allowing Joan to honour every version of herself and every love she has experienced without shame or regret, Freyne treats romance with an emotional generosity that is increasingly rare in the genre. That authentic and nuanced storytelling is why it stands out from other current romcoms where characters oftentimes are written as flat, unlikeable archetypes in service of a predictable plot, and sex scenes are thrown in incessantly to showcase intimacy (which in my opinion, more often than not, is a shallow substitute and narrative shortcut to clumsily highlight that there’s some sort of depth in the romantic connection). 

Eternity is more than just a film featuring your regular love triangles where love interests are pitted against each other and the cheating trope sneaks in just for the sake of drama. Instead, it is a delicate exploration of love and how it evolves alongside the person experiencing it, all while including genuinely funny moments throughout the beautifully colour graded film that fills the viewer with warmth every step of the way– and this is exactly why I believe it to be the best romcom that has come out in the past decade. 

Note: While I was writing this review, I found myself actively on Spotify searching for songs to get into the flow of writing. That’s when I thought: why not curate a playlist for this film too? As someone who’s obsessed with playlist curation, I couldn’t pass up on the chance to end off this review with music. Hence, here are several songs I associate with each character and romcoms in general– have fun (and/or cry) listening!

To Love and Be Loved like Joan:

1. You’re Still The One– Shania Twain

2. Love You For A Long Time– Maggie Rogers

3. The Dress– Dijon

4. Labyrinth– Taylor Swift

5. Tightrope– Michelle Williams (from The Greatest Showman) 

To Love Without End like Larry: 

1. Soul Mate– Flora Cash

2. My Heart It Beats For You–grentperez 

3. Gone, Gone, Gone– Phillip Phillips

4. Packing It Up– Gracie Abrams 

5. All I Ask Of You– Sarah Brightman & Steve Barton (from The Phantom Of The Opera)

To Love A Memory for 67 Years like Luke:

1. The Man Who Can’t Be Moved– The Script 

2. i loved you first– joan 

3. Eternity– Alex Warren, Gigi Perez 

4. About You– The 1975

5. Glowing Review– Maisie Peters

Several Miscellaneous Songs For Romcoms Because I Love Love & Songs About It:

1. Little Things– One Direction

2. Fall Into You– Daniel Seavey 

3. Favourite Place– All Time Low, The Band Camino

4. Everywhere, Everything– Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams

5. Timeless– Taylor Swift

More to be found in the playlists!