The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
That is ‘Life Itself’
‘This Is Us’ creator brings some of hit series’ formula to big screen with uneven results
For two seasons, Dan Fogelman has captivated scores of TV viewers with the hit NBC drama series “This Is Us,” which begins its third season on Sept. 25.
With the help of the show’s talented cast and writing that’s more often strong than not, the creator and executive producer has packed many an emotional punch and, no doubt, helped the tissue industry move some boxes off store shelves and into homes.
Fogelman would seem to have had similar goals as the writer and director of the new feature film “Life Itself.” Yet, despite likeable characters and an early gut punch, the movie isn’t quite so affecting, at least not when all its pieces have fallen into place.
“Life Itself” is an ensemble drama — not unlike “This Is Us” — with segments devoted to a few different small groups of characters. Unlike the show, however, “Life Itself” falls short of forcing you to become extremely invested in most or all of its characters as it tells a story that spans two generations and stretches between two continents.
But, hey, not everything can revolve around the Pearsons.
After a creative but odd and, ultimately, distracting opening that involves a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson, “Life Itself” is at its best with its first act demanding your full attention. It revolves around Will Dempsey (Oscar Isaac) and his very pregnant wife, Abby (Olivia Wilde), who have been together since falling in love in college.
Well, make that “had been together.”
We learn Abby has left Will, and that has left him in shambles. He’s seeing a therapist (Annette Bening), but it doesn’t seem to be helping, considering Will stops by a coffeehouse to get a double espresso in a large cup, asking a staffer to hold it so he can empty a couple of mini bottles of booze into it, tops it off with antidepressants and is asked to leave the business after making a scene.
How did he find this rock bottom? It isn’t initially clear as we are shown some key early moments in the relationship. At a party, for instance, when she asks him why he hasn’t yet asked her out, he responds he’s waiting. Asking her for a date will be so important — for him, he says, there will be no turning back — that he’s been delaying the act.
Later, when the love-sick Will asks her to marry him, she says she loves him but offers some reservation.
“I may not be equipped to be loved that much,” she tells him.
He promises he’ll dial it back, if that that’s what she needs — we don’t believe him for one second — and she says yes.
After showing us how the relationship of this New York couple ends, Fogelman moves us on from them — and forward many years — to a brief chapter focusing on characters portrayed by Olivia Cooke (“Ready Player One”) and Mandy Patinkin (Showtime’s “Homeland”). (To say more about them and how they may connect to the Dempseys would be to reveal too much.)
About midway through “Life Itself,” the story moves to Spain and another family. Javier Gonzalez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) is a simple but solid employee of Mr. Saccione (Antonio Banderas), who owns an olive oil business. The latter is impressed by the care the former takes when picking the olives on his land, so Saccione promotes Javier, giving him a space of his own in his home as part of the deal.
Although he takes the job, Javier admits to his boss that he lacks a certain amount of respect for him that ties to a choice he once made. That dynamic is amplified after Javier and wife Isabel (Laia Costa) are raising a son, Rodrigo (played as a child by four actors as a few years pass), and the perpetually single Saccione begins to take a great interest in Javier’s family.
Told in Spanish with English subtitles, this long stretch of “Life Itself” is — like life itself so often is — rather ordinary and forgettable, despite fine performances by all involved. The work by the prolific Banderas (“Acts of Vengeance”), who brings a complexity to his character that makes it difficult for us to dislike him even as we suspect we should, is especially praiseworthy.
However, no one in the cast matches the effort of likewise busy Isaac (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Operation Finale”), who makes quite the impression in what ultimately isn’t that much screen time and enjoys terrific chemistry with Wilde (“Love the Coopers”).
“Life Itself” merely is an uneven directorial effort for Fogelman, who made his debut behind the camera with the largely enjoyable 2015 Al Pacino vehicle “Danny Collins.”
He tries to build to a powerful crescendo, eventually bringing us back to New York for a final chapter centering on a collegeage Rodrigo (Alex Monner) that ties everything together, but this symphonic endeavor falls a bit flat. We can see how Fogelman is going to tie together these strings well in advance, and it isn’t any more compelling than we’d imagined when we see said connection made.
On the plus side, Fogelman all but makes a character out of Bob Dylan’s 1997 album “Time out of Mind,” which, with apologies to 2001’s laudable “Love and Theft” likely is the last great work by the American music icon and genius. Fogelman acquired the rights to use seven of the album’s tracks in “Life Itself” — the movie’s overall score is based on it, too — and Fogelman’s script has it being discussed at length early on by Will and Abby.
The use of “Time out of Mind” proves to be a better storytelling device than does Fogelman’s focus on the literary concept of an unreliable narrator, which ties to the film’s title. He offers a little food for thought here, but only a little.
While “Life Itself” had all the makings of a dramatic feast for the soul, it essentially is but a satisfying meal.
We’ll hope for a little bit more from the new season of “This Is Us.”