Tilda Swinton is an academic who studies stories. She lives a fairly isolated existence ... by choice ... valuing her independence over close relationships. While at a conference in Istanbul, she buys a glass bottle as a souvenir and when she accidentally opens it in her hotel room, djinn Idris Elba emerges. Naturally, he tells her she has three wishes, but as she's an expert on stories, she's wary since all the stories she knows about wishing are cautionary tales. Since he needs her to make wishes to be free, Elba tells her stories about his past to explain how he ended up in the bottle and to build trust.
The advertising for this film is deceptive. The trailer and this poster try to convince you that you're getting some kind of magical George Miller action extravaganza along the lines of Mad max meets "Everything Everywhere All at Once". This is nothing like that film. It's a pretty stately paced film that mostly involves Swinton and Elba talking in a hotel room, with Elba's stories providing the magnificent visuals. But even these stories are pretty deliberately paced. It's a film about ideas, not action.
I really liked the ideas. It's about the role of stories in life and also about love and companionship. It's also about the idea of wishing for things and what we ultimately have the right to demand from other people. The pace lagged occasionally for me, but I'm very forgiving of a film this packed with ideas and ultimately so intriguingly open ended.
