REVIEW: HERE

4/5

Peas and Carrots 

104 Mins. Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany & Kelly Reilly. Screenplay: Eric Roth & Robert Zemeckis. Director: Robert Zemeckis. In: Theatres.

'Here' lies one of the most criminally underrated movies of last calendar. And why? Was it because of what some trolls and conspiracy theorists on the internet said about Tom Hanks, trying to sully (no pun intended) his Hollywood good name? Is it because of the fear of an A.I. planet? Or, is it down to the fact that this fixed portrait of a film was too Hallmark, cheesy and corny for most, even at Christmas. Whichever poison you pick, one thing is clear, here is a big-three reunion that we've been waiting decades for. Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis are like peas and carrots, and great directors again. Although Hanks and Zemeckis reconnected on the 'Back To The Future' and 'Romancing The Stone' director's live-action take of Disney's 'Pinocchio' (as Geppetto no less), after 'Cast Away' and 'The Polar Express'.

You only have to see Hanks in previous CGI form on that train trip, without the cowboy whip, to see that Zemeckis is a bold and beautiful director, willing to take chances. I mean, here's a guy that turned The DeLorean (a famous car amongst drug-dealers) into the positive image of a time machine that even Jules Verne would be proud of. Let's look at the rest of the road, with some Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Emmys along the way. Before 'Space Jam', there was the animated live-action of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. The horror hi jinks of before it's time black comedy 'Death Becomes Her'. A searching Jodie Foster in 'Contact'. A wounded Denzel Washington in 'Flight'. A high-wire Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 'The Walk' that served as a love letter to the twin towers. 'A Christmas Carol', 'Beowulf' (see, 'The Polar Express'), and Steve Carell's miniature world of 'Welcome To Marwen'. There's a wonder to his work.

And now, 'Here', based on the 1989 6-page comic story by Richard McGuire that became a 300-plus page graphic novel in 2014. Adapted in a screenplay by Zemeckis and Eric Roth. So make that a fantastic four reunion (like this summer) for the 'Forrest Gump' insider who also wrote 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button', 'Dune' and 'A Star Is Born' (which he was all Oscar nominated for), to go along with the Academy nominated movies of 'Ali', 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' and 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close', with Hanks. Now, this nonlinear family drama, simultaneously screen subdivided into separate, multiple panes of stories, tells the story of a single plot of land and the inhabitants that call this place their home.  Echoing 'The Tree Of Life', the great Terrence Malick's most divisive film, which is actually my favourite. Not to mention David Lowery's 'A Ghost Story', and the 'Cycles' episode of Disney's 'Short Circuit' short films that does everything this film does, and more, in mere minutes.

Sure, some may not like this picture put in a frame, but in a Hollywoodland world of one-shots that doesn't even give the cameraman a break for lunch, this fixed one really works. Some may feel it's fake, but it would make for a sensational stage show, but a lot of costume changes for all the players here, like 'Downton Abbey's' Michelle Dockery and all them dinosaurs. As for the Generative Artificial Intelligence. Say what you will, I promise I didn't use it to edit this piece, but the de-aging of Hanks and Wright will make you think Forrest is run, running again. You'll forget you're not watching an old film, or them as they are now...and wait until we get back to the future, too. As a Hummingbird flaps its wings from the Spanish flu to COVID-19, World War II and the Lay-Z-Boy, a hallmark Hanks and Wright work wonders together. As do the parents of 'WandaVision' star Paul Bettany, bottoming and diving deeper (like Colin Farrell in 'Saving Mr. Banks') and 'Yellowstone', 'True Detective' and 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows' star Kelly Reilly (reuniting with Zemeckis after their 'Flight' plan), never better. There's also wise words about worry in this world in a picture-perfect portrait of parents and the family they make in the frames of all our lived in living rooms and homes. 'Here' is something we can all understand. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Forrest Gump', 'The Tree Of Life', 'Short Circuit: Cycles'.