Here

LIKES:

Good Acting

Realistic On Many Facets Of Life

Dynamic use of Set/Setting

Creative Transitions

De Aging Technology

Some Fascinating Connections At Times

I loved the Artistic Angle At the Times

Relevant/Relatable

Emotional

Summary: The movie's advertising has not lied to you, Here is a film that is truly one of the most unique concepts we've seen in a while. The movie relies on one to enjoy the single-camera/location fixation and tell a story about time's impact on life and the people moving through it. Zemeckis has accomplished this task on many levels and managed to utilize the space well and keep the shot dynamic despite being so static. Dynamic set changes help make this piece fascinating, with the idea of furniture changes being a characteristic of the house itself that is impressive and serves as a metaphorical window to life. I loved seeing this room lived in and the families who each called the villa home, seeing their interactions, auras, and personalities give a different light to the scene and tell their own micro-stories. Transitions occurred via outlines of photographs, drawing attention before rippling into a new scene, the technique is smooth and seldom overdone for me. It held many facets that were creative but never lost the anchor to realism to make this a nice, balanced piece.

As for the story and acting, an A-list of talent has helped bring this movie to life and achieve the goal of being a look at life. Here is a film that relies heavily on being relevant and the cast to make that relevance come to life. In regards to the story, it seldom bleeds away from people living life, taking snippets of various periods and reflecting them in the times. The ups and downs are beautifully captured on screen, and Zemeckis' vision helps drive the concepts home and hit you with that emotional punch this movie promised. When the relevant tales hit me, it only further strengthened my connection to the film, and I found my inner self reflecting on what this movie had to teach me. The acting is there to give words to the visions, with much of the dialog poetic without being too Shakespearean in its delivery. Bettany was a surprise to see, and though not quite as engaging or dynamic as his Disney films, it still manages to impress me with a stellar performance of the Boomer generation facing the fast changes befalling the world. Wright's return to the screen is fierce as her character is torn between fun and frenzy, a brilliant portrayal of struggles that befell so many in her spot during the great decades of change. Hanks is, of course, just as talented as he has been, incorporating elements of his other characters into each moment of his life and doing it with that same class and vigor he almost always brings to the screen. It's a chemistry that works, this family atmosphere appearing so natural and almost authentic with strong leads to guide the characters and never fall too much into the Hollywood portrayals. The age portrayal technology also gets props for the work it did to make the impossible possible, and though I'm not the biggest fan of the use of such tactics, this was the right movie to use it.

DISLIKES:

Incoherent Story Angles

Very Ambiguous Connections

Boring At Times

Difficult to Connect To Most Tales

Sad And Depressing

Perhaps Too Artistic

Summary: Yet, an artistic movie comes with a potential risk in modern commodities of movie making, and this film amplifies those costs that come with such a unique approach. My biggest complaint comes with the non-linear storytelling and the sort of random drops into some of the stories. The tale uses one of the periods to serve as visual chapter headings to usher the next theme of life but serves little to the story and, at times, feels short-changed and worthless. This, unfortunately, extends to just about every other tale in the movie that is not related to Hanks, making them feel last minute and unnecessary. A few times, there are some clever connections if you pay attention, but for the most part, the ambiguous and chaotic jumps between lives did little to make an engaging story worth the diversion time. Eventually, the sadder parts of life start to become the focus, and for people like me, a bombardment of sadness doesn't usually entertain or make me enjoy the film. The last third of the film is hard to watch, and those who might have recent or traumatic episodes in their lives need to be cautious not to get triggered. If you are like me, then getting drowned in the beautiful moments of sadness becomes overwhelming and excessive, dragging out the film further when the pace Is tripped by the unnecessary divergence mentioned earlier. When that happens, the movie starts to really fall in terms of enjoyment and becomes a bit of a chore to get through despite the smaller runtime.

The VERDICT Zemeckis' gamble pays off in terms of making a movie that just captures life without being a documentary. Here has beautiful visual storytelling that focuses on life in one room unfolding and giving time to human qualities. The film teaches lessons using simplistic measures and is creative in showing evolution from one angle without becoming too fixated on being abstract or unique. Solid acting and picking relevant points in life should provide relatable moments for a variety of audience members, which may be both a curse and a blessing, depending on the type of viewer you are. Helming all of this is a brilliant cast to deliver realistic lines and balanced performances and establish that familial charm movies like this one thrive upon for their material. Those very qualities are also the limitation of the movie, primarily in the haphazard storytelling that Zemeckis and company took with Here. Jumping between so many periods without solid connections made many tales feel irrelevant and unnecessary. As this compounds, the movie starts to feel like a chore, especially near the sadder parts of the film and begins to make the film boring. Beautiful and realistic as it can be, if you aren't ready to handle such things, Here is going to fall short for many people. Balancing all of this, Zemeckis' artistry deserves praise for originality, but is such an approach worthy of the theater? In my opinion, no. It's a film that can be appreciated in most homes and gives the same message. Thus, my scores for Here are:

Drama: 6.5-7.0 Movie Overall: 6.0.

'Here' is the fifth film directed by Robert Zemeckis starring Tom Hanks, and while not a 2.5-hour epic spanning 3 decades like 'Forrest Gump', it does somehow manage to span 65 million years. This is done via the film's gimmick of the camera sitting in the one spot, focusing on the living room of a house built in the early 19th century (presumably in New Jersey, USA), which includes some flashbacks of what was there on that spot of land before the house was built, including a Native American tribe.

We then follow ~5 families at various times and their life in the living room. It's not all linear, but isn't too confusing, with the main storyline following Al (Bettany) and Rose (Reilly) buying the house after WWII. There they raise their 4 kids, with Richard (Hanks) played by a de-aged/'Big'-era Hanks from ~16. He then meets de-aged Margaret (Wright), and we follow them as they age in the house over the decades. There's some nice moments, some funny bits and some sad scenes.

Even though it's a relatively short film, it probably didn't need at least 2 of these storylines! The editing is sometimes good, but often unnecessarily annoying. It's trying to portray the small moments of life that add up to create the human experience. It gets close, but due to the jumping around, you don't grow too attached to anyone, so the poignancy is lost.

Much has been made in the advanced publicity for this movie of reuniting the "Forrest Gump" gang, Hanks, Wright, and director Zemeckis. While that is all appropriate it in a way takes away from what this movie is really about. It has lots of stars playing lots of interesting characters but at its core it is a story about a location, a piece of land, a room in a house, and what happens there over the eons.

I say eons because the story actually begins on a prehistoric Earth when dinosaurs roamed then met their eventual fate when asteroids allegedly wiped them out. We see a time-lapse of the land changing, of vegetation growing, of Native Americans arriving and hunting. But always this one same plot of land.

Then, in the 1700s we see trees being felled and a large house being built, we later learn it was a Franklin home, yes that family which included Benjamin. We get quick glimpses of historical events, like the revolt against England, the early beginnings of aviation, the flu epidemic of 1918, WW2, student deferments during the Vietnam time, the invention of television, the 1960s arrival of The Beatles. However none of that is depicted dryly, the story shows the people and how they participated in or were influenced by the changes. Many times a TV running in the background helps us know the time, like watching Jane Fonda exercise or a clip from the old Dean Martin and Ed Sullivan TV shows.

The unique cinematography technique is to use a static camera and standard focal length from one spot in the room where family activities commonly took place. About the same view as a person in one seat in a theater viewing a stage play that covers many generations. Or a person sitting in the corner of that room for several hundred years.

Tom Hanks is Richard. His family were not the original residents of the house but are mainly featured in it.

Robin Wright is Margaret who eventually marries Richard. They have children, Richard puts his painting passion on hold to get a job that makes money to support his growing family. They get old in the house, and as the story ends both of them are not far from the ends of their lives.

My wife and I watched this movie at home, streaming on Prime. Because we are in our 70s and have seen a lot, and can identify with many of the tings depicted here, we found it totally absorbing and entertaining. Maybe younger viewers would not identify so well. But we consider this a fine movie, one of the better ones we have seen in recent years.

Edit: Two months later I got the DVD of this movie from my public library and watched it again. The experience was even better, knowing where it was headed and being able to appreciate some of the finer points. The disc also has an interesting extra which talks about and shows the technique that was used to de-age the faces of the main characters.

This film takes a different approach to storytelling. Instead of big, dramatic events, it focuses on the small, quiet moments that make up everyday life. It's set in one house and shows the lives of the families who lived there over different generations, with most of the story following one family as they grow older together, and how time changes everything.

It's a simple and thoughtful movie that reminds us to appreciate the ordinary moments we often overlook. It might not be what people expected, but it leaves a lasting impression if you take the time to really watch and reflect. I think the ending was emotional if you put yourself in their shoes.

I was excited to see this film at the AFI film festival last night. But after watching it, I was disappointed with the film. Robert Zemeckis of "Back to the Future" fame loves using technology to illustrate his films. In this one, he uses different picture-in-picture panel inserts to show what was happening at various times in the same place (i.e. "Here" - someplace in New England or Pennsylvania). He also uses de-aging techniques to turn Tom Hanks and Robin Wright into teenagers (done much better than Scorsese's "The Irishman"). However, these pluses don't make up for a mediocre and predictable story that concentrates on Tom Hanks (and Robin Wright's) initially exuberant youth that is wrecked by the realities of adult life. Been there, done that. Parallel stories of Benjamin Franklin's son, a Native American, an early aviator, the alleged inventor of Laz-e-boy, and a black family who all occupied the same space at different times eventually serve more as distractions rather than enhancements. The gimmicky use of the panels eventually becomes tiresome as well as the use of AI to create ancient times and animals. The main actors (Hanks, Wright, Bettany, and Reilly) are all excellent but I only wish they were given a better screenplay to work with.