14/23
Based on the comic book “You” by Richard McGuire
Tale
A generational tale about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing love, loss, laughter and life. It was first published as a strip in the comic book magazine “Raw” in 1989 and expanded into a 300-page graphic novel in 2014. [from the trailer] Richard: You know, you can spend the rest of the night here if you want.
Margaret: I could spend the rest of my life here
“Here” is director Robert Zemeckis’ fifth film starring Tom Hanks, and while it’s not a two-and-a-half-hour, three-decade-long epic like “Forrest Gump,” it somehow manages to span 65 million years. This is done by a cinematic trick where the camera sits in one spot, focusing on the living room of a house built in the early 1800s (probably in New Jersey, USA), which contains a few flashbacks to what was there before the house was built, including a Native American tribe. We then follow ~5 families at different times and their lives in the living room.
There are some nice moments, some funny parts, and some sad scenes
It’s not all linear, but it’s not too confusing either, as the main story follows Al (Bettany) and Rose (Reilly) buying a house after WWII. There they raise their 4 children, with Richard (Hanks) played by the old and new ‘grand era’ Hanks ~16. He then meets an elderly Margaret (Wright) and we see them grow old in the house over the decades.
The editing is sometimes good, but often unnecessarily jarring
Even though it’s a relatively short movie, it probably didn’t need at least two of these stories! It tries to depict the small moments in life that make up the human experience. It gets close, but you don’t get too attached to anyone because of the jumps, so the intensity is lost.