Review: Life Itself
Avoid Life Itself at all costs if you are a fan of Bob Dylan, Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Smart, or Samuel L. Jackson for it will ruin any appreciation you ever had of those people. It may want you to rip off your ears and curse Dylan forever; it may make you hate movies so much that you would be compelled to build a time travel machine just so you could go back and prevent them from ever being invented. To say that Life Itself is one of the most aggravating experiences one could ever undergo is a massive understatement. It's that terrible.
As evidenced by his hugely popular television series, This is Us, writer-director Dan Fogelman loves numerous characters, multiple timelines, and endless opportunities to shamelessly manipulate viewers' emotions, not to mention drain their tear ducts. Leaning heavily into the idea of unreliable narrators, the ultimate of which is - wait for it - Life itself, Fogelman introduces viewers to Will (Oscar Isaac), who has been so knocked for a loop by his wife Abby (Olivia Wilde) leaving him that nothing, not the mandated sessions with therapist Dr. Cait Morris (Annette Bening) or the constant mixing of Xanax and alcohol, can assuage the emptiness. Flashbacks to happier times demonstrate the intensity of Will's feelings for Abby. "I'm waiting for the right moment because when I ask you out, there's not gonna be any turning back for me," he tells her. "I'm not going to love anybody else for the rest of my life."
That should have been the first warning sign, the second being Abby confessing that she "may not be equipped to be loved this much," but how would these characters continue down their tragic paths if they let reason rule their lives? Moreover, how would their daughter Dylan (Olivia Cooke) exist without their union and grace viewers with her insufferable petulance? Mercifully, the film doesn't dwell on Dylan for too long as it decides to completely up sticks, steering away from New York to focus on another set of characters in sunny Spain. By far the most appealing section of Life Itself, it involves the uneasy love triangle that develops between wealthy landowner Mr. Saccione (Banderas, tremendously touching), labourer Javier (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), and Javier's girlfriend Isabel (Laia Costa). Naturally, more emotional torture porn ensues.
Sluggishly paced despite the endless torrential streams of dialogue, and unwilling at each turn to trust its audience's understanding of storytelling form and structure, Life Itself is awash in treacly and shameless sentimentality. Fogelman may believe he's being clever with showing us all the tricks up his sleeve - intersecting storylines, meta references, etc - but it all congeals into an absolute narrative mess that pulls much of its cast under with it. Some, like Banderas and Peris-Mencheta, manage to rise above the nonsense but others, most especially Isaac, are left so stranded they should either consider firing their agents or reassessing their abilities to pick suitable roles.
Life Itself
Directed by: Dan Fogelman
Written by: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Smart, Olivia Cooke, Antonio Banderas, Laia Costa, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Samuel L. Jackson
