Be forewarned: many will not enjoy this film. When I saw that Robert Zemeckis directed a new movie with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, I immediately thought it was Forrest Gump 2, but then I remembered Jenny died at the end of Forrest Gump. The trailer was a bit odd, curious, and left me crinkle-faced.
The storytelling jumps around in a non-linear fashion—not necessarily a groundbreaking technique—focusing on different generations of various families inhabiting a common place. That common place is a home (I won’t call it a house in this context, as the movie starts in the time of dinosaurs and progresses through time). There’s nothing terribly unique about non-linear storytelling, and in this case, it may serve to confuse the casual moviegoer. There is, however, a unique concept: the camera occupies the same angle for the entire film. It never moves, never pans, except for the closing scene, where it rotates to offer a view of the surroundings in the house and then flies away over the cityscape. There is one scene where a cleverly placed mirror gives a glimpse of what’s behind the camera view. Imagine dinosaurs running around (albeit in a short sequence), early Native Americans, and colonials using the same camera angle, and then transitioning into the construction of a house, again using the same camera angle, until the camera ends up positioned between a living room and a dining room, pointed toward bay windows with a view of the street. I didn’t know this prior to the viewing. Zemeckis is clearly using this technique to bring a visceral edge to the story.
First and foremost, the film is a drama. It serves to peek into real familial interactions, including love, new life, death, alcoholism, divorce, etc., through the lens of different families with various experiences. For much of the film, I didn’t think the story had a point—it just felt like a mashup of everyday problems from different families. The last thirty minutes began to close the main story arc, while the others were left more open-ended.
The humor is scant, but when it’s used, it’s more heartfelt than anything. The acting is better than average, and if you think Tom Hanks is a great actor, you’ll love his performance. There’s practically no action in the film, and at 1h 44m in length, with no camera movement, some may struggle to maintain interest.
For those of you who have been to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, this film very much feels like a dramatic adaptation of the Carousel of Progress. It’s a serviceable film if you can get past the single-angle shots and are okay with dramatic stories. I don’t know if I like it as much as my scoring indicates. It definitely doesn’t hit the feels like Forrest Gump; it’s just not that well done.
