by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $11.99
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly David Fynn, Ophelia Lovibond
Intro:
... as engrossing as the visuals and soundtrack are, it’s a shame that the material underneath is so milquetoast.
Robert Zemeckis. Hollywood mainstay, visual effects pioneer, and, over the last several years, a shadow of his former self. Once known as the man behind Back to The Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (his theatrical run from 1985-1997 is solid gold), he has more recently relegated himself to misguided experiments (Welcome to Marwen), flagrantly missed opportunities (The Witches), and decent-ish productions overshadowed by much better neighbours (the Pinocchio remake and, if we’re being honest, even the admittedly-immersive The Walk).
So, you can imagine the sighs when news hit that his latest film would involve the use of generative AI.
In fairness, though, trust Zemeckis the techno-optimist to find a justifiable use of such a thing, at a time when the industry is still recovering from the workers’ strikes. In visualising Richard McGuire’s source material (a 1989 comic strip that got turned into a full 300-page comic book in 2014), he delivers easily his most technically polished work since The Walk.
With Don Burgess’ camera planted to a single spot throughout, he, Zemeckis, and editor Jesse Goldsmith capture the history of this one place, from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the present day.
The fading in and out of temporal windows, peeking between the then and now, keeps the film’s engagement consistent, and makes for a palpable depiction of the ways that the past, present, and future co-exist.
Even the AI use, primarily to de-age the actors on-screen, holds up to scrutiny and gives it some legitimacy as a storytelling tool (rather than the replacement for the whole toolbox and craftsman that it keeps threatening to be).
Technically speaking (and this is to help cushion the pull-quote-y way this sentence will end), it is one of 2024’s most daring mainstream productions.
But that’s all to do with style. Substance is a whole other story. With the effort put into the set design and period detail, not to mention Alan Silvestri’s reliably gorgeous compositions, Zemeckis and co-writer Eric Roth’s script makes that all feel wasteful, as getting to enjoy all those touches becomes difficult through the constant eye-rolling. The dialogue absolutely refuses to let anything go unsaid or unexplained to death, consistently bringing up the nature of time and the power of ‘what might’ve been’ as if its rudimentary domestic dramas were far more complex than they ultimately are. It aims for the holistic exploration of humanity found in The Tree of Life, and while this isn’t nearly as mind-numbingly plodding, ol’ mate Terry at least trusted his audience enough to refrain from this much needless hand-holding.
It doesn’t help that its preening sentimentality hits odd notes. For every intercut between storylines that taps into a Cloud Atlas-esque feeling of meaningful synchronicity, there’s a pratfall that might (?) be a joke, or a weirdly-timed aside, or more than one Benjamin Franklin jumpscare muddying up the attempts to represent Black and Native Americans. Its tone is all over the damn place, and that itself is part of the point, but its emotional reach exceeds its grasp more times than not.
Here is a beautiful but delicate egg being crushed under the Tyrannosaurus-sized foot of its own script. Credit to Zemeckis and co. for how well they translate McGuire’s layered panel layouts on screen, and the cast do well under the circumstances (David Fynn’s inventor and Ophelia Lovibond’s pin-up model in particular, bring a lot of life to the frame; why weren’t they the main focus?!). But as engrossing as the visuals and soundtrack are, it’s a shame that the material underneath is so milquetoast.
