The director of After the lost emerald, back to the future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Death suits him well, Forrest Gump, Contact, Castaway, The Polar Express, The flight y Allies He works again with Hanks and Wright in a film that is more a technological marvel than an artistic one.
Here (HereUnited States/2024). Director: Robert Zemeckis. Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Kelly Reilly, Leslie Zemeckis, Paul Bettany, Michelle Dockery, Ophelia Lovibond and Dannie McCallum. Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis, based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Photography: Don Burgess. Music: Alan Silvestri. Distributor: BF Paris. Duration: 104 minutes. Suitable for people over 13 years old.
In narrative terms, the place from which a story is told is usually called point of view; That is, who – a character, a third person not involved in the plot – is the “owner” who lends his eyes and ears so that we can see and hear what happens on the screen. But the case of Here It is different, because it does not correspond to a living being, but to a house. The result is a film entirely told from the same angle and the same camera position, a particular and original device, it is true, but at the service of a story with little and nothing new.
Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, the film that marks the reunion between Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks after Forrest Gump, Castaway, The Polar Express y Pinocchio It encapsulates what happens during a century of history – or more, given that in its most extreme time lapses it reaches the time of the dinosaurs – within the four walls of a living room through which the members of four families will parade. Many times they do it in the same plane, while Zemeckis appeals to a kind of “internal montage” that causes the screen to be divided into small frames corresponding to different periods.
Each time is marked by the changes in the environment that can be observed through the window, as well as by the decoration of the living room. Although there are constant chronological jumps, after the first third of the footage Here It begins to be “ordered” by appealing to a more linear timeline. And it is from there, when the surprise at the device wanes, that the problems of a film that is more interesting in its concept and the technical challenges it poses than in narrative matters begin.
The bulk of the film is dedicated to a World War II veteran (Paul Bettany) and his wife (Kelly Reilly), who will face the typical marital vicissitudes while expanding the family with several children, including Richard (Tom Hanks), the The same one that after his adolescence he will present to who will be his wife for many decades (Robin Wright). Since Hanks and Wright are 68 and 58 years old, respectively, for much of the footage they are rejuvenated or aged through the use of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence. The same thing happens with them as with the entire film: once we get used to their changing physiognomies and want to go beyond them, what we find is not exactly interesting.
And the situations experienced by the parents, Richard, his wife and their children do not escape the common places of the most conventional family dramas, with fights, wear and tear, deaths, work problems, accumulated frustrations, lack of money and long-awaited projects. that never materialize. Nothing new under the sun, even when wrapped in good wrapping paper.
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