David Freyne, an Irish writer-director, turns on the charm with this revisionist, existential rom-com that genuinely works for most of its running time. It stars Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner, with able support from Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early - and it’s led by a premise that could have easily backfired, or gotten too smart and precious for its own good. So kudos to the director and the cast for making this A24 production work, far better than it would have been on paper.

First off, there’s a 1990s throwback element to the film, recalling such films as Hearts and Souls and Ghost. If you haven’t guessed yet, the premise has to do with the Afterlife and how a love triangle can still rear its head. We first meet Larry and Joan in their old age, about to attend the gender reveal party of one of their adult children. Larry has a fatal accident at the party and wakes up on a train heading to what looks like a terminal/convention center. He learns that in the Afterlife, you appear at that stage in your life when you were happiest. So we see Larry (Miles Teller) explaining to his AC (Afterlife Consultant) that, as Joan had terminal cancer, he’d like to wait for her before deciding on his ‘Eternity’.

Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) does show up soon after. Still, her Afterlife and choice of Eternity are complicated by the fact that her first husband, who died in the Korean War, has been patiently waiting for over 60 years to live the ‘life’ the two never enjoyed. Luke (Callum Turner) has also refused to choose his Eternity and has been working as a bartender, biding his time.

So a lot of existential angst is generated with the smart premise of what Joan is to choose - young love or long-term marriage, what was barely explored, or the security of what you already know and have lived with, the one who remembers you when you were at your best, or the one who has lived with you through your worst? Joan has a week to decide whom to spend Eternity with. And remember what I said about a convention center, the sight gags of what sort of Eternity's are being offered, is a bottomless source of wit and humor.

There’s a hilarious and popular Man Free World - for women who have had enough of men, a Studio 54 World - for the gay man, and with no AIDS crisis, and even a world for Cabaret fans - 1930s Berlin but without the Nazis. The fact that Freyne is himself gay allows for a lot of humor that is campy, but done with taste and subtlety. This includes a lesbian reveal from Joan’s closest friend, and even one of the two leading male characters admitting to a homosexual episode or two. These are hilarious and well-timed.

Having set us up with such bravado and brio, the one disappointment of this film is that the last 20 minutes revert to the standard rom-com formula. I would have welcomed something more untraditional and unexpected. And you were already leading us, the audience, to that, and I was ready to welcome it; then you stretched the film to deliver a hackneyed resolution that didn't feel genuine. My small reservation on what is a fantastic ride, for most of the way.

Teller, Olsen, and Turner are equally good in their portrayals, and this film deserves an audience, as it is one of this year’s good date movies. Watch it before it’s yanked out of theaters.