With the recent renewal of films being reimagined as TV series, it’s best to remember that some things are just better left on the small screen. Life Itself certainly has its heart in the right place but ultimately fails to be as impactful as it portends.
Dan Fogelman has gained a substantial following as the creator and writer of the acclaimed television series This Is Us. It’s evident he has a knack for family dramas with authentic, but meaningful, dialogue that can really tug at the heartstrings. He’s also written several other screenplays (The Guilt Trip, Crazy Stupid Love, Cars and Tangled) and dabbled in some directing as well, but having complete creative control over a project is both a gift and a curse. His penchant for dramatic storytelling came to the forefront early, but not often in this script. The first 45-minutes or so felt like one cohesive story but the second half, while connected, is much too preachy and sort of just meanders along for another hour until merging back into the primary storyline. It felt very much like two halves of a miniseries, rather than a full feature film. From a narrative standpoint, there is far too much wasted time spent jumping back and forth in between timelines and characters. It has served him well on TV, where there is much more time to weave things together throughout the course of a season, but places the film in limbo.
Where the film lost its way is this plot fulcrum about how “Life Itself” is the most unreliable narrator and it’s so unpredictable. There is a bunch of time and dialogue dedicated to this theory but, by the halfway point, the rest of the film is painfully predictable. Additionally, there is a narrator throughout the film who is revealed in the end and that character’s reliability is never in question. As a result, there is significant real estate dedicated to promoting an idea that is constantly being disproven throughout the course of the film. It’s a disservice to the script and to the audience, which having a second writer or a writing team may have been able to fix. It is no condemnation but some strong acting performances were squandered in the wake of that crutch.
Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde had excellent chemistry as the two primary characters who get the movie started, Will and Abby. Will is in therapy and, as the story unfolds, the pain of their relationship hit home with tremendous force. These aren’t the kinds of roles that are going to get awards recognition, but they were both strong performers and deserved to have the screen time to flush out their relationship. Mandy Patinkin and Jean Smart were also quite good as Will’s parents, Irwin and Linda. In moments, Patinkin gave perhaps the strongest performance of the cast but also wasn’t given the screen time to really make it stick.
Antonio Banderas kicked off the second half monologuing as landowner Mr. Saccione. This was an exceptional performance from Banderas who’s always been a talented actor despite falling out of the spotlight in the early 2000s. He delivered his life story with plenty of charisma, but it ultimately served to set the table for Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Laia Costa and Alex Monner playing a family with their own issues. Mencheta and Costa gave strong performances as Javier and Isabel respectively, making the most of their screen time. It was nice to see a different kind of family in the spotlight but they too were shortchanged by the narrative choices.
There was so much buzz surrounding this project that Amazon plunked down $10-million for the distribution rights and moved the premier to the Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately, it’s been getting trashed ever since. This movie wasn’t nearly as bad as critics have made it out to be. I can certainly understand some of the issues but the current 11% it’s boasting on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t reflective of the movie’s overall quality, so don’t let that dissuade you. However, I don’t have a lot to say about it either.
Recommendation: There are better options at the box office for your consumer dollar but, if you are a fan of This Is Us or any show like it, you can take away the major positives and overlook the negatives.