Life Itself
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Cooke
Directed by: Dan Fogleman
Rated: R
It's been too long since we've seen an interconnecting cross-generational story hit theaters. You know the type of movie I'm talking about: it's got about 5 different stories going on with different characters, only to prove that they are all connected! Think Love Actually, except deeply depressing.
Life Itself has 5 chapters exploring its central characters. There's Will and Abby, a young couple who are about to have a baby. Dylan, an edgy girl who leads a rock band. Javier and Isabel, a couple whose son has witnessed a traumatic event. How do these chapters connect? It's a mystery...just like Life Itself.
Dan Fogleman, writer of This is Us, serves as writer and director of Life Itself. I have to admit, as a big fan of This is Us, I was expecting good things here. That was a mistake. I want to warn This Is Us fans to steer clear of this movie. It's emotionally manipulative and unnecessarily violent. Each chapter bleeds into the next with moments of shock value that are meant to stun the viewer, but just feel hollow in execution. It's as if Fogleman had a "wheel of trauma" that he spun when he wanted something dramatic to happen to his characters. I have to wonder how some of these strange ideas for the movie came from. How does one get a cast so great and turn it into this movie?
Speaking of the cast, it's a star-studded one. Annette Benning, Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas. It's hard to comment on acting performances here because the characterization is so thin for every character. Particularly all of the women. The women in this movie only exist to have horrible things happen to them. The women are portrayed as 1) victims of violent deaths 2) victims of sexual abuse 3) or complete idiots who have no idea how to cross the street. There is a very kind character named Isabel who has some impressive depth, but it is pretty much ruined when a bunch of unnecessary suffering is thrown her way for the sake of an "emotional twist." There is one scene in particular where a woman dies a brutal death and it's shown a total of 3 different times. There's no reason for that. If we're gonna talk about good performances, Annette Benning and Antonio Banderas were the MVP's of the movie. Annette Benning plays Dr. Morris, Will's therapist. She leads an engaging therapy session that keeps the audience guessing. Antonio Banderas plays Mr. Saccione, the rich owner of an olive farm who makes us question the hero vs. villain dichotomy.
Life Itself is an emotionally manipulative movie that tries to pass off shock value as depth. Spare yourself from this waste of time.
My Rating: 3/10