35/25
Based on the comic book “Here” by Richard McGuire
Narrative
A generations-long story about families and the special place where they live, sharing love, loss, laughter and life. It was first published as a comic strip in the comics magazine “Raw” in 1989 and was expanded into a 300-page graphic novel in 2014. At one point early in the film, Richard’s father names several towns that he claims are located along the Pennsylvania Highway, although in reality these are all towns that are along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, which wasn’t even built at the time… [from the trailer] Richard: You know, if you want, you can spend the rest of the night here.
Clarinet Concerto, pts
Margaret: I could spend the rest of my life here. Features They Stooge to Conga (1943). 1 & 2 Author: Artie Shaw Performer: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra Provided by RCA Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment. I was excited to see this film last night at the AFI Film Festival.
“Here” is somewhere in New England or Pennsylvania)
But after watching it, I was disappointed with the film. Robert Zemeckis, known for Back to the Future, likes to use technology to illustrate his films. In this film, he uses various “picture-in-picture” inserts to show what happened at different times in the same place (i.e. He also uses de-aging techniques to turn Tom Hanks and Robin Wright into teenagers (much better than in Scorsese’s Ireland).
Been there, done that
However, these advantages do not redeem the mediocre and predictable story, which focuses on the initially stormy youth of Tom Hanks (and Robin Wright), which is destroyed by the realities of adult life. The parallel stories of Benjamin Franklin’s son, a Native American, an early aviator, the supposed inventor of the Laz-e-boy, and a black family occupying the same location at different times ultimately serve as distractions rather than enhancements. The non-standard use of panels eventually feels tedious, as does the use of AI to create ancient times and animals. The lead actors (Hanks, Wright, Bettany, and Reilly) are excellent, but I wish they were given a better script to work with.