HERE Movie Review

“Here” is adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire. You’ll be beguiled with the way director Robert Zemeckis chose to display for you the lives of several members of one family living in their beautiful prewar home… and the history of that same home many years before.​

It uniquely travels through these lives as if you’re watching old comic strips jump out at you. Think of your frame-in-frame TV watching. You see two shows at once on your television. It works perfectly here. Interestingly enough, the story started as a comic strip published in 1989. Here, the boxes of these comic strips spring to life, showing you how similar the families in them are and also presenting their differences. They reveal to you many years on the same land, (starting with the dinosaur, moving on to natives and present day), how the earth sustained life. Even Ben Franklin makes an appearance at one point. This was quite a popular patch of earth.

We see everything happening in one living room. We’re looking out a window from one angle as people walk in and out of the room. You, the audience, are forced to see in one direction. You’ll be surprised at how much you pick up from watching the world go by in only one spot. You do see the entire room, though. In a corner against the wall, a radio sat. Suddenly, the newest form of entertainment appears: black and white television, which became color television before the film’s end. It’s up to you, audience member, to pay attention to those changes, for there are many. Spotting them is fun. It is not just the changing seasons but also cars and people in general.

In the house, a man creates his one-of-a-kind “Relaxy Boy” chair. Guess what that becomes. There’s also an aviator in the house at one point. He’s John Harter, played by Gwilym Lee. He played Brian May in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” He’s a confident young man, maybe too confident.

The film centers around Richard (Tom Hanks), Margaret (Robin Wright) and his parents, who own the house, Rose (Kelly Reilly), and Al (Paul Bettany). Though this is the case, we start, literally, at the beginning of time… never moving from our spot, from that perspective. A fun bit of trivia: Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, quite a good actress we’re destined to see in more projects sooner rather than later, plays Richard and Margaret’s daughter Vanessa. She’s the daughter of our director.

The film isn’t easy to stick with if you have severe OCD. It’s all over the place, but that’s what makes it so appealing to some… in my opinion. Never once do you have the chance to get fatigued. You examine new things, characters, and situations they’re going through deeply enough to keep you glued to the screen. There are times when you’ll identify with what you’re seeing.

The movie is presented in a non-linear format, by the way… maybe too much. The roads taken may get you to feel for Richard enough to allow a tear to form. The house you see here is filled with other people’s memories, and you think of the ghosts they’ve left behind. In the windows of time displayed here, this film may give you a chance to relive, redo and become appreciative of what you may have forgotten. Take time to smell the roses and be with those you love. Though you think there will be, because there always has been, there might not be a tomorrow for you to do the things you’d like.