I’m sure at one point or another we’ve all wondered what happened in our homes before we lived there. Who lived in this house? or what happened on this land before the buildings were even built. What if you could place a camera in one location and look forward and backwards in time on one specific place just to see that? It’s almost like opening the door of the Tardis and looking through to see all of history in one spot.
In the new Robert Zemeckis film Here, coming to theaters this weekend, you get a taste of the history of one place throughout time. While the name may confuse people when you tell them what you’re going to see, there are many things the movie could have worked through a little better, including that title.
The main focus here is one family that purchased a turn-of-the-century home post World War II and the multiple generations of the family that live and grow up in the home. But that isn’t the film’s only focus. As the movie frames in and out different parts of the scene, you get glimmers of the history and the future of the space creeping through the current story. The movie covers the house’s previous inhabitants, and what happened there, and even goes back and gives you a history of the land as far back as the dinosaurs, while conversely moving forward to the modern day after the family moves out.
Conceptually, and on paper this sounds great. But when the story keeps flipping back and forth to different parts of history instead of focusing on the family that is the center or anchor of the story, it feels like the effect loses its punch. It cheapens as it continues flipping back to the Native inhabitants just to give context on the archaeological effects found in the yard. It seems like these could have been implied and the audience given a little more credit when they’re seen earlier in the film. But it takes you out of the story and keeps shoving context in your face just to show the audience all of the lives that have filled that space throughout history.
Here does a good job of showing the repeated patterns of love, loss, and happiness that can happen through different generations and over time. It has very touching parts that show the human condition and some that are a lot harder to watch. But overall, some of this gets lost as the audience isn’t given the time to embrace or sit with these emotions very long before it moves into another time flip. Adding in elements that are just there to make fans who loved Forrest Gump seem to almost cheapen the experience as well.
While the de-aging technology is well utilized, some of it didn’t seem to feel right throughout the film either. Especially with actors like Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, audiences have a long filmography to pull from of their younger years and some stages and ages didn’t look right on the actors. With the time-flipping CGI – I’m sure there will be a lot more to discuss on the in coming months as the space itself changes more and more than set dressings.
Here is in theaters everywhere this weekend.
Overall Rating
About Here
From the reunited director, writer, and stars of Forrest Gump (1994), Here is an original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit. The story travels through generations, capturing the human experience in its purest form. Starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Rated PG-13