Jency Reviews: "Here"- Robert Zemeckis Film

Still of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright from the movie “Here”

I was so excited to finally get to watch Robert Zemeckis’ film Here, being that I love making period drama movies. I thought what a great challenge to cover life from the beginning of time to now, through a movie. Quickly after we start the movie, we realize he’s going to keep the camera at the same angle until the very last few shots, and it’s completely fascinating how they went about moving the characters in and out of the space of the main house in which the movie is shot in. It almost felt like you were looking at a photo album of history. They kept putting boxes inside of the frame —it’s like a frame within a frame— which gave it a very artsy feeling.

I really enjoyed the main storyline and watching one family pass through three generations of time in the same house. So much of the film, you couldn’t really see into the characters’ eyes based off the camera angles and that made it hard to connect with the characters with no closeups. So they almost felt like figurines moving through time. I definitely wanted to care about them, I just felt so distant from them. I also felt like the imagery was so picturesque, that I didn’t care that I didn’t connect with them. I enjoyed the set decorations and the subtle changes over the years. I also felt like because I couldn’t see into their eyes much, maybe this is how life feels at the ends, you don’t remember the fine details, you just see the bigger picture. Maybe that’s what Robert wanted us to feel: a zoomed out flurry of personal connections with the most intimate people and the family’s life together.

A lot of the movie was AI generated, and it felt surreal to see Tom Hanks so young again. It made it feel fake, because I was thinking about his face the whole time and how they got it to look so young. Weirdly when I was looking at Robin, I thought maybe she just has really good botox, and then I realized her face was also just AI generated. They definitely are on the cutting edge of technology in this movie and it’s hard not to notice it.

The daughter of Richard and Margaret in the film felt underdeveloped and I wished they’d developed her character more and given us a more up-close look at her life, and they didn’t even mention her in the end of the movie at all. Which kept me thinking it maybe was an oversight, but it seemed intentional.

Overall, I would say I really liked the movie, but I wish I cared about the characters more as they moved through time. It did kind of feel like a theater show in a way, like you felt like you were in the audience the whole time. In the end, I just like the intimacy that a good closeup provides. And I definitely missed that in this movie. For anyone looking to see this movie, I say go for it- you definitely need to see this artistic endeavor.