Directed By George Miller

Starring – Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Pia Thunderbolt

The Plot – Dr Alithea Binnie (Swinton) is an academic – content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.

Rated R for some sexual content, graphic nudity and brief violence

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING | Official Trailer | MGM Studios – YouTube

POSITIVES

Even after a prestigious career that spans over fifty years, George Miller is still one of the premiere visionary directors of our time, this instance bringing along his signature energy and presentational versatility towards an experience that feels epic in both concept and scope, with no shortage of spell-binding transitions to a far more fantastical time. As a visual storyteller, he’s immaculate, combining enough lavish color designs, unorthodox editing schemes and corresponding angles to play coherently towards the spectacle of the engagement, all the while cementing his own unique personality that eludes tonal plausibility’s with unapologetic consistency. Because of this, the film defines itself on its own rules, with an emerging romance narrative that not only directly contradicts the promoting of the film’s various marketing trailers, but also gives way to a meaningfully insightful commentary on life and love that reaches effortlessly for the profound in its screenplay, all the while connecting us fearlessly to the notion of loneliness that at one time or another defines us all. Aside from George’s remarkable merit toward the film’s prominence, the performances are equally responsible, with Swinton and Elba churning a duo of emotional evolutions that above all else tap wholeheartedly into the sentiment of humanity. While their chemistry as romantic interests is anything but impeccable, thanks to the lack of development between their interactions until the climactic third act, their emotional ranges are the total opposite, leading to a heartfelt resiliency from Swinton that comes at the cost of several of life’s heartbreaks, and a show-stealing circumstance for Elba, which garners with it a consistency in demeanor and accent that does periodically remind you that he’s one of the very best doing it today. Much of their dialogue, even Swinton’s overhead narration, feels richly ingrained with organic spontaneity, leading to the kind of believability that transcends the fictional captivity of its enveloping, all the while playing into the storybook approach of its occasionally fairy tale level in gimmick. Finally, while much of the acclaim will go deservingly to Miller, the work from music composer Junkie XL, another recent collaborator of Miller’s, simply can’t go understated. The many themes throughout channel an underlining euphoria that play tremendously towards the enchanting and entrancing aspect of the corresponding visuals, and with the razor-sharp audio levels that enhance without intrusion, solidifies a creative presentation that works unanimously towards conjuring something uniquely original in an age where productions are often conceived separately instead of cohesively.

NEGATIVES

Though Miller is a perfect visual storyteller, his thematic range could’ve used a further polishing to iron out some of the fluidity and consistency issues of the narrative. For starters, the pacing is arduous, with a redundancy in sequencing that expires in fresh appeal very early in the film with a dependency of exposition-heavy storytelling that never leaves a hotel room. With more time donated to Swinton and Elba’s characters outside of the realm of their fairytale storytelling, I feel it could’ve easily alleviated some of the pressure and focus that the flashbacks rely so heavily on, in turn building their romantic dynamic in a way that feels conductive for all who are invested into it. Speaking of which, while the romantic aspects of the film are a refreshing spin from what was initially expected tonally and creatively in the film, they’re underwhelmed in a complete lack of chemistry between the two leads that never fully earned my believability. Some of this could in fact be intentional, as the evolution of the arc conveys that love should always be based entirely on free-will. But for my money, the problem more so conveys itself to more of an overall blandness in interaction that never extends beyond the coldness of that initial engagement, regardless of if the film forcefully attempts it to. This leads to a third act with its own abundance of problems, but mainly just a series of actions from the characters that never feel earned, with a pacing that feels slightly abrupt compared to the rest of the film. This is further echoed with the various fades to black that the film sifts through in the final fifteen minutes, where it could easily end during any one of them, but continues towards a contradicting resolution that not only felt intentionally safe to not alienate the audience in the unfortunate realities of unrequited love, but also tedious in the many afterthoughts it repeatedly adds to the pile while in search of a way to end this thing.

OVERALL
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” brings director George Miller back to the forefront of the cinematic landscape, with a visually spellbinding, centuries-spanning dissertation on the many plunges and pitfalls of love. Though the reach of its visual allure far extends the grasp of its storytelling sentiments, the raw and evocative aspects of its production elicit a resonating return to form from the auteur visionary, who answers our wishes once more with another project that feels so unlike anything else in the history of his respected filmography.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-