HEREAFTER (12A).

Drama. Cecile De France, Matt Damon, George McLaren, Frankie McLaren, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jay Mohr, Thierry Neuvic, Lyndsey Marshal. Director: Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood may be approaching his 80th birthday but the imposing actor-turned director shows no signs of relinquishing his seat behind the camera.

%movie(36435) Since 2003, he has released roughly one film every year, winning critical kudos and countless awards for such dazzling humanist dramas as Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags Of Our Fathers, Changeling, Gran Torino and Invictus.

Eastwood confounds our expectations with this moving tale of loneliness and abandonment, based on a screenplay by Peter Morgan.

Opening with a jaw-dropping tsunami sequence tearing through a small beach town in Indonesia, Hereafter gradually draws together three seemingly unconnected stories and poses tantalising questions about mortality.

French television anchorwoman Marie Lelay (Cecile de France) is on holiday in south-east Asia with her boyfriend Didier (Thierry Neuvic) when Mother Nature unleashes her fury upon the community.

Marie is knocked unconscious and almost drowns, glimpsing bright white light and blurred figures before she is resuscitated.

In San Francisco, psychic medium George Lonegan (Matt Damon) turns his back on his so-called gift, which he views as a curse, and takes a cookery course where he meets new girl in town, Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard).

Across the Atlantic in London, Marcus and Jason (George and Frankie McLaren) fend for themselves on a housing estate while their drug-addict mother (Lyndsey Marshal) wrestles with her demons.

Hereafter brings together the main characters for the briefest of moments, before their paths diverge again.

Performances are exemplary, from Damon’s loner and De France’s haunted political journalist to the McLaren twins, who capture the stoicism of frightened little boys.

Eastwood directs with flair, opening with that dramatic action sequence before another sensitively handled set piece that draws comparisons with the 2005 London underground bombings.

Like the characters, we consider our own belief systems and ponder the possibilities that confound and divide even the most brilliant scientific minds.