Image Credit: Netflix
From Night Owl Stories and Anonymous Content, remarkably bright creatures The latest film adaptation of author Shelby Van Pelt’s debut New York Times bestselling novel spent more than 64 weeks on the publication’s hardcover fiction bestseller list, and more than 30 weeks and counting on the trade paperback fiction bestseller list. The highly anticipated film is directed by Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing), who previously worked with the streamer on her debut feature First Match in 2018.
Co-written by Newman and swapped screenwriter John Whittington, the story focuses on Tova (2-time Oscar winner Sally Field), a widow who works the night shift as a cleaner at a local aquarium, who finds her happiness again when she meets a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus (voiced by 5-time SAG/Actor Award nominee Alfred Molina) and Cameron (Thunderbolts standout She forms an unexpected bond with a wayward young man named Lewis Pullman. The city in search of his family. Together, they uncover a mystery that will lead them to a life-changing discovery and restore their sense of wonder.
Adding to the already well-known cast, the film also includes: Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Joan Chen (Sister), Kathy Baker (Edward Scissorhands), Beth Grant (little Miss Sunshine), and Sophia Black-D’Elia (night of).
Image Credit: Netflix
Slipping into the Mother’s Day weekend spot occupied last year by Emmy-nominated family-friendly crowd pleaser Nons, remarkably bright creatures It falls into a rare category of films that I remember most from my youth in the 80s and 90s; A story that doesn’t even make sense in a 2-minute trailer or logline. It’s a movie that reminds you of someone you know, perhaps a neighbor or close relative or co-worker; The person who brightened you up when you needed it, the person who was never the same after something got damaged, the person who was alive until they saw you that day.
Based on my age, I imagine Jessica Tandy, a legend of stage and screen, who won an Academy Award for Driving Miss Daisy and was nominated for another award a few years later for Fried Green Tomatoes. Tandy had a black belt in emotionally manipulative roles, which see people of a certain age and experience let down their guard in order to regain an invigorating sense of life; Whether it’s having a new person in their life after a loss or seeing something in a stranger that reminds them of when they were younger.
But if you want binary for how remarkably bright creatures Perhaps you realize it’s because of the films Tandy made with her husband Hume Cronin in the mid-’80s, notably the Steven Spielberg-produced family film Batteries Not Included. In that film, Tandy and Cronin are a lovely but defeated NYC older couple who are being forced out of their home by a real estate developer; That is, until the intervention of a group of tiny alien machines gives these powerful senior citizens the tools they need to fight and something to cherish at a time in their lives that seemed long gone.
critical response to Batteries not included Was incredibly mixed. even Between the famous couple Gene Siskel and Roger EbertThe film’s humanity was effective only about half the time, with Ebert calling it “sweet, joyous and fun family entertainment” and Siskel calling it “so harmless it’s boring”.
Image Credit: Netflix
It doesn’t matter which side of the coin you’re on when it comes to a movie like this, you’re right. You either see the wave of emotional manipulation coming at you and run away, or you let it wash over you and bathe you in its empathy, compassion and hope.
with remarkably bright creaturesI didn’t choose violence, as the memes say, but instead I chose to let Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and the voiceover of an intelligent octopus at the end of her life attack my emotions… as the memes say. Every part of Field’s performance reminded me of the older women in my life who have made their lives an exercise in survival and feel as if their very existence is a nuisance to the world around them – if they’re brave enough to join them that day. Someone who was cut so deeply that every step reminds them of the pain, a pain that they see every day as they live in the grave of reminders in their homes, their communities, and in their minds.
This story works for you, as it did for me, if you want to see a rebound, if you want closure, if you want to think that life might be a set of happy accidents and that aquatic intervention might be possible to put life in order before it’s too late. For the sake of all of us, Sally Field plays this role perfectly, having enough courage to lay down the groundwork while also being open to the possibilities once more. Her chemistry with Louise Pullman works exactly as intended – a closed-off woman who hasn’t been a mother in a long time slowly becomes a role model for someone in need, while the man returns the favor in the same way as it rekindles her sense of passion and significance at a time when she was about to give up. Two actors who never let the improbabilities of the story or profane sensibilities touch their acting.
If you want to criticize the safe and fictional nature in which this story is constructed, be my guest. I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong. If you want to tell me that maybe you don’t even need Octopus’s voiceover, because the relationship should be enough, I’ll allow that and maybe even co-sign it. However, I refuse to ignore how this story reached me, reflecting a little-seen segment of the type of person we see every day. For everyone’s take on “boring” and “harmless”, I choose this movie as “sweet…family entertainment.”
- my octopus teacher
- Batteries not included
- first match
- where the crawdads sing
- nonce
Sally Field as Tova Sullivan
If you’re Gen X or an older Millennial like me, Sally Field is and always will be a valuable actor. Whether you first encountered her when your dad watched Smokey and the Bandit from his recliner or playing every version of a complex, well-developed mother in Steel Magnolias, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Forrest Gump, Fields has always brought us to our knees. With cheekbones and a delicate smile that can light up even the darkest room, she has a charisma and a down-to-earth sensibility that always makes us feel at home in any situation.
Now in the “Auntie May” period of her career, Field can still give her characters the grace and dignity they deserve with a level of authenticity and foresight that many in her position fail to give. In Tova, I saw the fire of decades of pushing people away through the eyes and soul of a woman trapped by the trauma of her past. It’s a rare combination because we – Field’s fans since youth – have seen Field grow as well as his characters up to this point.
In different hands, this film and this role could have been far more trite and trite, especially in an era that shuns Oscars and forced sentimentality. But the field pulled me away from something that felt more real, despite being surrounded by the impossible.
Sure, it’s a TV movie with an octopus voiceover, but if it rubs off on you the right way, Sally Field, Lewis Pullman and whoever else you’ve cast in their emotionally resonant characters might surprise you.
