From a pilot and his young family to a couple who invented the La-Z-Boy, the audience is invited to be flies on the wall of an American Colonial home’s living room as characters from the recently released film “Here” celebrate successes, birthdays, marriages and endure heartbreak during failures, regrets and losing loved ones. Because of its unique features and overarching message, it had the potential to be a beautiful and inspiring movie. However, that message was hidden behind a rushed plot and unfortunate decisions within the film.
The audience gets to see the same location over the course of millions of years. Along with the year, the people who make memories and face life’s challenges within the living room change as well. However, the movie is able to make connections between people across generations.
The movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who has led several other huge movies, like the “Back to the Future” franchise and “Death Becomes Her.” He also directed “The Polar Express” and “Forrest Gump,” both of which Tom Hanks was heavily involved in. Specifically in “The Polar Express,” Hanks voiced five separate characters. This made it less surprising when Zemeckis chose Hanks to play one of the main characters, Richard Young, in “Here”. By doing so, he reunited Forrest Gump with Jenny, since Robin Wright plays Richard Young’s wife, Margaret Young.
I interpreted the message of the movie to be similar to the “Dead Poets Society” or “A Cinderella Story.” As said in the latter, “Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game” is a message that is constant in “Here”. It isn’t until Margaret Young is sitting in front of her 50th birthday cake that she realizes she could have traveled the world by that point in her life. She could have built her family a home. She could have been doing something she loved. Hearing her say “I wish I could say that I’ve done more with my 50 years” and watching her regret the life she lived made me reflect on my own, which I believe was Zemeckis’ ultimate goal.
In a way, “Here” attempts to give the house historical value by choosing to make it the room where the La-Z-Boy was invented and giving it a connection to Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son. They also named it the site of Britain’s surrender during the American Revolution. I felt while it did give the house a backstory, each of the time periods were unfinished. If each plotline had come full circle like the main one, it would have better completed the film and could have made the theme of the movie more clear.
Additionally, the unique transitions between each storyline are creative, but frustratingly frequent, with some scenes lasting barely a minute. Because of this, the impact of each line and interaction was more shallow than if we were given time to consider or understand what we had just watched. For instance, we are given no less than ten seconds after the main characters recite the most beautiful lines to each other with the song “Let it Be Me” by the Everly Brothers playing softly in the background until a pregnancy announcement completely kills the mood.
I also felt that the modern timeline seemed like an after thought. Their way of representing our current generation was including COVID-19 and an intense and emotional conversation between two African American parents and their child on how to safely speak to an officer during a traffic stop. These were two of about three scenes of the entire 21st century timeline, making it seem like they were just checking boxes in their agenda to cover history.
I do feel the one thing they summarized best was the ups and downs of life. At times during the movie, I was asking myself when something positive was going to happen for the Young family. However, I eventually learned that the entire point of the movie was that life isn’t just sunshine and rainbows. Life is leaky roofs and getting fired from a job when you’re already behind on your bills. But I also learned from Richard and Margaret Young that life is also being there with your loved ones through every season and sacrifice, despite the struggles.
