Movie Review: Here


This year marks the 30-year anniversary of one of the greatest movies ever made, “Forrest Gump,” released in the summer of 1994 and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The powerful and emotional ending of Forrest Gump had an impact as strong as “Terms of Endearment,” released in 1983, including audible sounds of sobbing within the audience I was in 30 years ago. Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Director for Zemeckis, and won Tom Hanks his second best actor Oscar.

The main marketing for the new movie “Here” is the 30-year reunion of Forrest Gump with screenwriter, Eric Roth, who co-wrote “Here” with director Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks who plays the lead character Richard and Robin Wright who plays Margaret and who co-starred with Hanks in Forrest Gump.

Here is based on the book of the same name, written by Richard McGuire about a non-linear story told entirely within a single room over hundreds of thousands of years. There are random scenes about different lives and events, never told in any sequential order. There is no doubt that this might be a good idea for a book, but unfortunately trying to adapt this idea to a major movie was a bad idea. Possibly after purchasing the rights to the novel “Here”, and later realizing that this unusual concept was not going to work as a highly regarded movie, the idea of bringing back the writer, director, and actors for Forrest Gump for the 30-year anniversary was an attempt to save the box office. With low ratings of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes for this film, a profitable box office is highly unlikely.

Attempting to review “Here” is very difficult because this is not really a movie. This film is more like a a deck of 52 cards representing different scenes and each card is just thrown at the audience at random. We are in the present day, then back to prehistoric times, then we are in the Revolutionary War period, then the Civil War, back to 50 years ago, then revisiting the 1920s, 1950s, present day, and then back to the time of the American Indian. All of this is shown in front of a bay window inside an old house or looking out into a forest during prehistoric times. Making a film like this has never been attempted, but is something like this watchable or even mildly entertaining? The consensus is clear that this film based on a famous book, just does not work as a movie. “Here” is the second film within the last month when a great director missed the mark. The last one “Megalopolis” directed by Francis Ford Coppola was a complete disaster, one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% are accurate and only this high because of the acting of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. This one is a surprisingly big miss.

Movie Review: Land


In the case of the new movie “Land” both directed and starring Robin Wright, the screenwriter started with a woman in her 50’s named Edee played by Wright – traveling by herself to live in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely nothing but a few cans of food in a broken down and abandoned log cabin with no plumbing. From the start of the movie, the question is, “why would anyone want to do something like this?”. Slowly during the two hours, we find out that a horrendous tragedy has happened to Edee. A tragedy that would challenge even the strongest among us to their very limit. Survival instincts take over that at times can be out of your control, when the worst of life happens. The brain tries to find a way to numb the pain, and try to move on – some how, some way. Many cannot move on and either go insane or take their own lives within a situation like this one. Land is definitely not a happy film, but no story like this one could ever be told in a happy way.

This film is about human survival, intense levels of grief and most importantly, human empathy – something that is very rare in this world. During her attempt to live in the middle of nowhere, Edee befriends Miguel, played very well by Demián Bichir, who not only saves her life but teaches her how to survive in the middle of the mountains of Wyoming. Their friendship grows with his sporadic visits, even bringing his dog who becomes quickly attached to Edee. The Cinematography of the huge mountains of Wyoming was very well done, as was the first time directing debut of Robin Wright. The ending of this movie is both powerful and emotional and at the end Edee finally finishes her story, about why she is such a state of extreme emotional grief. The story of Land is a simple and very powerful one.

Once again the critics are wrong, with the Rotten Tomatoes only at 69%. This film is a solid 85% and has my full recommendation.