Certain movies take bold steps and sometimes they are home runs and sometimes they are total strikeouts. Honestly, I’d put Here right in the middle. Some of the weirdness of the single fixed camera angle worked and some of it was very bizarre.
Here are the five questions you need answered for the film Here!
What is the film about?
Here follows a handful of stories, but the story at the center of the film is around Richard Young (Tom Hanks) and his growing up in a house purchased by his parents (Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly) after World War II, and the stories that play out within the home around Richard growing and his eventual marriage to Margaret (Robin Wright). The other stories include prehistoric times in that location, a love story among the indigenous Lenni-Lenape people, the estate of William Franklin (Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son), the first tenants of the house which includes a father obsessed with flying, and then the inventor of the La-Z-Boy recliner. There is also a story of a family that moves in after the Youngs that take place around the time of COVID. If that seems like a lot…it is.
What worked in the film?
Tom Hanks is still Tom Hanks. He may not be at his most “Forrest Gump” in working with Robert Zemeckis and Robin Wright again, but he’s still one of the greatest actors of all time in my opinion. If you generally like Tom Hanks projects (especially his later ones), then you will find enjoyment in his performance and this film overall. The main storyline in the film also works and will bring about a tear or two as you watch a family grow, adapt and suffer loss across the better part of a century.
What didn’t work in the film?
The non-linear format didn’t work for me. It seems like we’ve gotten a few non-linear films this year, but as well as Challengers or We Live in Time does it, this is the opposite. This could have been told better in a linear format, but I may be in the minority here. I also didn’t like the focus on other stories, I wish it would have strictly focused on Richard and Margaret’s storyline with a little bit of Richard’s parents involved, instead of jumping around back (and forward randomly) to different people.
The winner of this film is?
The editor. While I didn’t like the format as much, the editor of the film accomplished the mission fairly well. It had to have been a nightmare to piece together in the way the graphic novel is done. For what they did, the editing between scenes was very well done.
You’ll like this if you liked…
Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. I actually very much like The Tree of Life, a film that is very much all over the place and carried by some incredible editing and acting. I feel like The Tree of Life is a better evolution of a movie like Here, and is maybe why I wasn’t as high on this. I also see a little Cloud Atlas in this as well, and maybe it’s the Tom Hanks/time jumping combination.
Would I recommend Here?
Unfortunately, no. I think this movie has an audience, but it’s very much an older audience. If you’re looking for a film to watch at home on streaming while you eat dinner, then it’s worth a watch. But it’s not worth spending a night out to watch on the big screen.
Final Score – 2.5/5
