Movie Thoughts: Three Thousand Years of Longing

So George Miller — what a range that man has. Mad Max: Fury Road is the definition of a masterpiece and one of the best action films of all time, bar none. The Babe movies are charming and excellent. Happy Feet was nice.

This movie has heart and soul and flowery narration exulting modern technology in fantastical language, i.e. satellite dishes are described as, “dishes that listen the whispers of stars long dead”. They have a great line describing smartphones that I’ve forgotten. The movie calls itself a true story told as a fairy tale. Therein lies its downfall — another movie that tries to be too much at once.

About 70 percent of it is a conversation in a hotel room. Like My Dinner With Andre interspersed with some fantasy epic like Gulliver’s Travels or something. The cinematography is beauty itself, best thing the movie has going for it; moonlit waves crashing ashore, a falcon soaring over sand dunes, glass melting on a tray. This movie has the scope of Fury Road, but lacks the coherent, tight storytelling. The story is tedious and third act completely loses engagement. I’m sorry to say I had my phone out by then, my attention span spent.

Idris Elba is close to being my favorite actor and he plays his role well, but even he can’t maintain the charm by the third act. Swinton has the same problem — brilliant actor given material that collapses under its own weight. There were many other actors I didn’t recognize, and they did fine.

Starts with a lot of potential and remains watchable but not all that satisfying.