Structurally this film is not about people, but a particular spot in Trenton, New Jersey, right across the street from a magnificent house owned by William Franklin, illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. We get to see it when dinosaurs come crashing by the disturb the dragonflies, when a courtship took place between two Indians, when Franklin was in occupancy and where, for the past century or so, it has been the living room of a modest home. Four families have occupied it in the space of the movie, and the movie keeps shifting among the latest six stories. By far, most of the time is spent in the sixty or so years that WWII vet Paul Bethany, wife Kelly Reilly, and their children, particularly Tom Hanks and his wife Robin Wright spend there.
The performances are very good, but there are issues. My cousin called it a gimmick film. While I disagree, I find it more a not too successful experiment in focus. The camera sits in the same spot at precisely the same angle. That can work. It certainly worked for Louis Feuillade more than a century ago, when his unblinking camera offered a sardonic view of the goings on. Director Robert Zemeckis' cameraman, Don Burgess, offers no particular comment, although a CGI hummingbird that shows up a few times suggests a 'this too shall pass' attitude. Unfortunately, that all-too-obvious symbolism trivializes what the audience spends over one hundred minutes closely observing.
Zemeckis has spent the last couple of decades seeing what he can accomplish with the latest advances in computer animation. Usually he has exceeded the limited, plunging the audience into a very creepy, uncanny valley. Happily, the de-aging effects have caught up, and everyone looks relatively normal. Except for the hummingbird.
