Here Review – Captivating, Visually Stunning, Enjoyable with Good Moments

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Category: Film

Published on Wednesday, 30 October 2024 17:52

Written by Janet Walker

Here, presented by Sony Pictures and Director Robert Zemeckis, recently held its global premiere at the AFI Film Festival and brings to the screen a story of life, and past lives, of love, heartache, loss, and laughter.

The film begins with a pre-historic trip through what was one an uninhabited land, and suddenly the big bang and after a nuclear winter, the years necessary to regenerate the land, the American Indians now inhabit the region. And our story begins.

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We are in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and we see the course of the community's development. A Colonial house is being built, by slaves, and the big talk is that Uncle Benjamin (Franklin) is arriving and no talk of politics. Then across the street, workers are digging out a foundation. Soon a house was built.

The first couple we meet, an adventurer, who has seen the world from the sky and has been bitten by freedom of flight, and his wife, who detests the idea of him flying, more for fear of him dying. He is passionate about his hobby, she more grounded. They have a child. As we see throughout the film it is rarely the dreaded fear that kills, but the unexpected.

The main family we meet is Rose, played by Kelly Reilly, and Al, played by Paul Bettany. As a young married couple, in the 1950s, she is pregnant, and he is a GI suffering from WWII PTSD, and quick to pour and refill his whiskey glass. Their lives become the center focus of the film.

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The activity in the home is told from one point of view, only in the living room, the changes in the time, can be monitored by the television in the far-right corner, which Zemeckis uses to include key moments in history, and not the usual. One would expect in this timeline film that the Moon Landing would be included, but he adds the Ed Sullivan Show introducing The Beatles, so many will know this is 1964.

When the younger brother enlists, we expect more traditional images of Vietnam on the corner television, instead he uses a prelude of horror to come. As it is a story of life, the frailty and infidelities of life do not escape our characters.

Not all of which is told is in the traditional sense. Infidelities take many forms. Richard, played by Tom Hanks, cheats on his passion, his love of painting, for what he believes and what has been ingrained in him as the right thing. He cheats on himself and is miserable and the what if's plague him, and it isn't until later in life when the investment into the marriage fails to yield the return of forever that he returns to his first love. His wife, Margaret, played by Robin Wright, explains at her 50th birthday party how time has quickly passed, and her dreams are now gone, and there is no time. Granted they start married life with a baby, and there seems to be no option that allows her to pursue any avenue that fulfills her, and it becomes a thorn.

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There are charming comical moments, the scene when their daughter, Vanessa played by Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, is a typical teen, headphones, never listening, and anything having to with family is ugh, and I think the best dialogue delivery by Hanks is in this scene. She played her part very well. The early days when a young Richard, bounces of the ottoman and the baby flies in the air is also very funny. Somehow, I think it's one of those you'd have to be there moments. I thought it was funny.

Age, Illness and tragedy are a part of everyone's life, and we see, they are played here as well. Kelly Reilly is a standout especially in her portrayal as the dutiful wife and mother, and more after she is felled by a stroke. The Lazy Boy inventor and his wife steal the show, they are loving, and lively, and in love with each other and all the zaniness that comes with inventing.

Here weaves the past with the present, as we become invested in the lives that have lived in this home, we realize each seemed to have an adventurer, artistic, spirit, that they embraced or suppressed.

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I didn't see the single point-of-view as ambitious, although it has been hyped as an ambitious undertaking. One would expect an incremental increase in difficulty, especially with Zemeckis' past accomplishments in cinema, and the POV and de-aging technology create the challenges which many have remarked were initial obstacles. Now, everyone will do something like it; the road has been cleared; a new path created. Using the de-aging technology on Tom Hanks and Robin Wright produced the intended results. They looked like their younger selves.

Here is well told, and for anyone who ever considered the possibility of the past moments, those who may have walked in our exact steps on any streets, in any city, lived before us, Here tells a mesmerizing story.   

With more than a century of stories, of lives, and loves, the transitions to each were effortless, Zemeckis uses white lines representing snapshots to transition into time. The pacing was good. I think it is really the frailties of life. The movie ends sadly, age has set in, and with-it loss and the inevitable, and we don't leave the theater elated.

Enjoyable with good moments, Here is visually stunning and opens in theaters November 1, 2024. See it.

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Country: US.

Language: English.

Runtime: 104 minutes.

Director: Robert Zemeckis.

Producer: Bill Block, Derek Hogue, Jack Rapke, Robert Zemeckis.

Executive Producer: Andrew Golov, Jeremy Johns, Thom Zadra.

Writer: Eric Roth, Robert Zemeckis, Richard McGuire (novel).

Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Lauren McQueen, Harry Marcus, Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, Michelle Dockery, Gwilym, Delilah O'Riordan, David Fynn, Ophelia Lovibond, Nicholas Pinnock, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Cache Vanderpuye, Anya Marco Harris, Tony Way, Jemima Rooper, Joel Oulette, Dannie McCallum, Keith Bartlett, Daniel Betts, Leslie Zemeckis, Alfie Todd, Mohammed George, Logan Matthews, Denise Faye, Jenna Boyd, David Charles, Lilly Aspell, Jonathan Aris, Louis Suc, Eloise Webb, Angus Wright, Stuart Bowman, Alasdair Craig, Martin Bassindale, Louis Sparks, Hope Delaney, Dexter Sol Ansell, Phil Aizlewood, Steven Dykes, Mitchell Mullen, James Eeles, Jack Bennett, Isla Ashworth, Chris Rogers.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation’s top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and the International Federation of Journalists.