Juror #2 review

 Coming Soon! 

Here review

HERE: 

AN AMBITIOUS BUT MEANDERING PASSAGE OF TIME! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

TRISTAR PICTURES AND MIRAMAX

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in Here

 

            Tom Hanks (Apollo 13, Toy Story franchise, Sully), Robin Wright (The Princess Bride, Unbreakable, DC Extended Universe), and director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away) reunite for the first time since 1994’s Forrest Gump in the new drama, Here which chronicles a series of events set in one house over a passage of time. The film is based on a 2014 graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire which I didn’t realize until coming home from the theater. 

            It’s no surprise that in recent years, Zemeckis’ directing efforts haven’t been all that spectacular with the last film he directed that I absolutely loved being 2015’s The Walk. But much like Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, he is capable of directing a wide variety of films with completely different tones and styles from each other from family-friendly adventures like Back to the Future and Roger Rabbit to emotional rollercoasters like the already mentioned, Forrest Gump and Cast Away; need we forget his motion-capture movies like The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol? 

            However, after The Walk Robert Zemeckis’ films started to decline in quality, but that’s not to say they were all bad, I thought 2016’s Allied was a decent war-drama about a romance between rival spies during World War II. But I was very disappointed by Welcome to Marwen despite an interesting premise, I didn’t even bother watching his remake of The Witches though from what I heard that was probably for the best, and I certainly didn’t like his remake of Disney’s Pinocchio which I reviewed a couple years ago. 

            Which brings us…well, Here which looked fascinating to me when I saw the trailer, a movie set entirely in one location (a living room in this film’s case) over long periods of time and revolving around the people and events that occurred inside said location. It had sort of a Boyhood meets Birdman vibe, but instead of one continuous shot it’s one location and one still shot throughout the film. 

            The movie is definitely ambitious and I won’t take that away from it, but the execution I thought was kind of sloppy. I don’t think it’s Zemeckis’ worst film (If you ask me Pinocchio is his worst), but it is easily one of his weaker outings. 

            The film covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the past to well into the future. Most notably, the story of Richard Young (Hanks) and his wife, Margaret (Wright) who experience love, loss, and life within these four walls. 

            The film also stars Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Richard’s father Al Young, Kelly Reilly (Me and Orson Welles, Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2, Flight) as his wife Rose, Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, The Gentlemen, Boy Kills World) as Mrs. Harter, Gwilyn Lee (Midsomer Murders, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Great) as her husband John, Ophelia Lovibond (Nowhere Boy, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocketman) as Stella Beekman, David Fynn (Undateable, The Mauritanian) as Leo, Jonathan Aris (Good Omens, The Martian, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Earl Higgins, Lily Aspell (Wonder Woman, Extinction, Young Woman and the Sea) as Bethany, Nikki Amuka-Bird (The Personal History of David Copperfield, The Outfit, Knock at the Cabin) as Helen Harris, Mohammed George (EastEnders) as Winston, and Daniel Betts (Fury, Allied, Alien: Romulus) as William Franklin. 

            Overall, Here definitely is a unique entry in Robert Zemeckis’ filmography and the performances especially by Hanks, Wright, and Bettany are very strong, but its meandering and non-linear storytelling will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Unfortunately, I’m the latter in this case because I don’t think it’s executed very well. 

            There are some positives I have to say about the film, the movie is staged beautifully in a home’s living room that I personally wouldn’t mind spending time in regardless of when it takes place, it just looks so welcoming and cozy I just want to go into the movie and sit on the sofa or something. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright still have great chemistry after 30 years and I liked seeing some of their stories together unfold and the emotional moments in general are very genuine (Also, damn amazing de-aging effects on Hanks and Wright early on in the film). 

            Paul Bettany who I didn’t even realize who he was until later on in the movie is a huge standout as Hanks’ father and gives some of the best acting I’ve ever seen from him. Specifically, during a scene in the future, he gives a damn heartbreaking performance with an occasional comical moment that doesn’t feel out of place. 

            While I enjoyed certain bits of the film, it’s pretty cluttered altogether and a lot of that is because of how the movie is paced. The movie jumps around at various points in time so there’s no real flow to what’s happening and sometimes the sudden time shifts distract from its drama or emotion. 

            Sometimes it works like when they use this photograph effects on top of the current scene to showcase different time periods at once. But other times it just interrupts a strong character moment to go back to the past or forward to the future. 

            The one still shot of a living room I acknowledged was ambitious and respected the artistic intention, but even I wasn’t that impressed by it in the long run. There’s only so much room redecorating you can do to keep it consistently interesting and because the time and characters are constantly changing, it’s hard to be invested throughout and thus you’re just watching this thing meander until the end with a few sparks of intrigue and drama here and there. 

            Here, I feel is an experimental film from Robert Zemeckis that sometimes works and other times drags on. Hopefully someday, we’ll see another movie from him of the same caliber as Back to the Future, Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Flight, etc. because he is more than capable of putting out some incredible films (A director who puts out movies like those with that quality is certainly no slacker) and if Tim Burton can find some comfort with the new Beetlejuice sequel this year, anything is possible.

            I’ll be waiting “Here” for Zemeckis’ comeback masterpiece that I hope happens soon.