LIFE ITSELF – “Emotional, morbid and overlong”
RATING
DIRECTOR
Dan Fogelman (writer / creator / executive producer of This Is Us)
STARRING
- Oscar Isaac as Will
- Olivia Wilde as Abby, Will's wife
- Mandy Patinkin as Irwin, Will's father
- Olivia Cooke as Dylan, Will and Abby's daughter
- Laia Costa as Isabel
- Annette Bening as Dr. Cait Morris
- Antonio Banderas as Mr. Saccione
- Alex Monner as Rodrigo
SYNOPSIS
As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.
REVIEW SUMMARY
Yes, Life Itself is emotional (having tissues on standby is not a bad idea), but it’s also surprisingly morbid and overlong. Broken down into “chapters," chapters 1 and 2 are the ones I enjoyed the most featuring characters and performances that I wanted to see MORE of. Meanwhile, chapters 3 and 4 are a whole other thing that I didn’t connect with at all -- and found it really dragged the movie into overlong status. Also, did you know the 2nd half of the movie is subtitled? The selling point of course is that this movie will make you cry (it’s from the writer / creator / producer and overall brain trust of TV’s This is Us after all). And while it probably will make the waterworks flow, many of those tears are overly contrived and manipulated. Either way, they get the job done.
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