Here is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Echoing the source material, the film is told in a nonlinear fashion: the story covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the distant past to the 21st century. During the film, the screen is often subdivided into multiple panes, presenting events from different time periods simultaneously. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly, with digital de-aging being used on much of the cast to have them portray their characters over the course of the different time periods. Here premiered at the AFI Fest on October 25, 2024 before being theatrically released in the United States by TriStar Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing on November 1, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed over $12 million on a $45–50 million budget.

Plot

Dinosaurs are shown roaming an area until they are wiped out, and the Ice age takes hold. After the ice age ends, the land turns green again. Much later, the area is home to the Lenni-Lenape people, and a storyline follows a man and woman, their courtship, family, and eventually the woman's death. The area is then part of the estate of William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son (the last colonial governor of New Jersey from 1763 until 1776). Right around the turn of the 20th century, the home that becomes the center of most of the film's action is built. Its first tenants are John Harter and his wife, Pauline. Mr. Harter is obsessed with flight and later dies of the Spanish flu. Later inhabitants of the house include the bohemian couple Leo, an inventor, and Stella Beekman, a pin-up model, who live there in the 1940s before and during the War. Leo invents what becomes the La-Z-Boy recliner and the couple move to California. The Young family—originally led by Al and Rose—buy the house in 1945, after the conclusion of World War II. The Youngs raise three children in the house; Richard, Elizabeth, and Jimmy. After an 18-year-old Richard gets his girlfriend Margaret pregnant, they get married and raise their daughter Vanessa in the house, eventually taking it over from Al and Rose. In the early 2000s, Richard and Margaret divorce and Richard ends up selling the house. Later inhabitants include Devon and Helen Harris and their son Justin. Helen is devastated when their housekeeper, Raquel, dies of COVID-19. In the aftermath, Devon and Helen sell the house. As an elderly man, Richard takes Margaret—who now has dementia—to the empty house in 2024. He reminds her of the time Vanessa, as a child, lost a ribbon from school, which triggers her memories of their shared life at the house.

Cast

Production

The film adaptation of Here by Richard McGuire was announced in February 2022, with Playtone and ImageMovers producing, Eric Roth writing the script, Robert Zemeckis directing, and Tom Hanks set to star. To find investors, an auction for the movie's rights was to be brokered by CAA, which represents Hanks, Playtone and Roth, and WME, which represents Zemeckis and ImageMovers. However, all studios passed on the film at the package stage seeing how it was a risky and difficult movie for broad audiences. In May 2022, Miramax joined as the financer and international sales agent and Sony Pictures landed distribution rights for the United States after Miramax co-owner Paramount Pictures passed on handling the movie globally. Robin Wright was cast before the investor's announcement; in September, Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly joined, followed by Leslie Zemeckis in February 2023, and Michelle Dockery and Gwilym Lee in April. It reunites Hanks and Wright, as well as Zemeckis, Roth, cinematographer Don Burgess, and composer Alan Silvestri for the first time in 30 years after the 1994 release of Forrest Gump. Production began by January 2023 in Pinewood Studios. The film uses a new generative artificial intelligence technology called Metaphysic Live to face-swap and de-age the actors in real time as they perform instead of using additional post-production processing methods.

Release

Here had its premiere at the AFI Fest in the TCL Chinese Theatre as the Centerpiece Screening on October 25, 2024, the day after Zemeckis was honored with a Director's Spotlight by the American Film Institute. The film is scheduled to be theatrically released by TriStar Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing on November 1, 2024. It was originally set to have its world premiere in Los Angeles and New York on November 15, 2024, followed by a limited release in the United States on November 22, 2024 and a wider release on November 27, 2024. In June 2024, Sony Pictures moved the film's wide release to November 15, 2024, and in August, they brought it forward two weeks to November 1, 2024. Other distributors will release the film internationally, with Amazon MGM Studios handling the film's release in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and German-speaking Europe, Eagle Pictures in Italy, Nordisk Film in Scandinavia and Huahua Media in China.

Reception

= Box office

= In the United States and Canada, Here was released alongside Hitpig! and Absolution, and was projected to gross around $7 million from 2,647 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to just $5 million, finishing in fifth place.

= Critical response

= On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of 125 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "While it's heartening to see director Robert Zemeckis return to humanistic storytelling, Here's stagey conceit and overabundance of spectacle robs it of emotional resonance." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 41 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave the film a 69% positive score (with an average of three out of five stars). Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com gave the film one out of four stars and wrote, "Here is a work so cloying and ham-fisted in its attempts to move you that there is a point when you find yourself thinking that the only thing that Zemeckis hasn't thrown into the mix is a needle drop of 'Our House' and then he proceeds to do just that." Pop culture writer Nathan Rabin also gave the film one out of five stars, calling it "another sad illustration of the creative decline of a once-great filmmaker".

= Accolades

=

References

External links

Official website Here at IMDb