'Eternity' evaluates love in comic afterlife

Miles Teller and Da’Vine Joy Randolph steal scenes in this purgatory rom-com.

- ROBERT ABELE

ELIZABETH OLSEN, from left, Miles Teller and Callum Turner in “Eternity.”

There’s no shortage of fantasy gems about afterlife bureaucracy conflicting with true love, including “Here Comes Mr. Jordan” (remade into another classic, “Heaven Can Wait”), the wartime Powell-Press-burger masterpiece “A Matter of Life and Death” and Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life.” “Eternity,” set in a way station resembling a blocky airport Radisson at capacity, may never become pantheon material.

But in screenwriter Pat Cunnane’s clever riff on love triangles and limbos, directed by David Freyne with nods to what was celestially cheeky about those earlier movies, there are signs that the rom-com itself needn't be left for dead.