30/15

in 1989, and expanded to a 300-page comic in 2014

Narrative

A generational story about families and the special place they live in, sharing love, loss, laughter and life… The "Here" based on a comic book; written by Richard McGuire. First as a tape, "Raw" appeared in a comic magazine.

Margaret: I can spend the rest of my life here

[from trailer] Richard: You know, you can spend the rest of the night here if you want. 'Here' is the fifth film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, and while it’s not a 2.5-hour, three-decade epic like “Forrest Gump,” it somehow spans 65 million years. This is done through the cinematic trick of the camera sitting in one place, focusing on the living room of an early 19th century house (presumably in New Jersey, USA), which also includes some flashbacks to what happened.

there, on that land before the house was built, including an Indian tribe

We then follow ~5 families at different times and their lives in the living room. It’s not all linear, but it’s not too confusing either, as the main story follows Al (Bettany) and Rose (Reilly) buying the house after World War II. They raise their 4 children there, Richard (Hanks) is played by a 16-year-old, aged/Big-era Hanks.

The editing is sometimes good, but often unnecessarily annoying

He then meets the aging Margaret (Wright) and we follow them as they age in the house over the decades. There are some beautiful moments, some funny and some sad scenes. Even though it’s a relatively short film, it probably didn’t need at least 2 of these storylines!

He tries to depict the small moments of life that add up to create the human experience

It gets close, but the jumping around doesn’t make you overly attached to anyone, so the poignancy is lost.