THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING movie review

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (hereafter simply referred to as “LONGING”) is directed by George Miller. The film stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. It’s based on a short story by AS Byatt.

Alithea Binnie is a scholar who is satisfied with her life as it is, regularly telling stories and attending worldly gatherings with her contemporaries. But her whole outlook is radically changed when a souvenir she purchases in a Turkish shop contains a Djinn who offers to grant her any three wishes. In her hotel room, he recounts the stories of the previous times he ended up in captivity leading up to his current situation. What will form between the pair who couldn’t possibly be more different?

Off the top of my head, I think this is the fourth movie this year I’ve reviewed to feature Idris Elba in some capacity. Does this guy ever get a day off? Teaming up with Tilda Swinton for LONGING, I was certainly curious to see how well these two would play off each other, largely as foils for one another. One an academic scholar and storyteller, one a mysterious and magical immortal being who spend much of his life in tragedy and solitude. The film scores major points for its unique concept, worldly settings and atmosphere, and of course, the performance of its leads. But it falls flat in other areas, including the “past” stories being far more interesting than the “present” ones despite their lack of proper development, and a third act that shows the filmmakers had no idea how to end the movie.

Tilda Swinton has always been seriously underrated as an actress, whether she’s playing The Ancient One (complete with shaved head!) in the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE or a multiple role (including a male one!) in the SUSPIRIA remake. Any chance I get to see this lady on the big screen is welcomed with open arms, and seeing her as a scholar uninterested in anything outside of her routine who has her life flipped upside down ranges from dramatic to hilarious. Unfortunately, the “present day” story in LONGING ends up being the less interesting, so Swinton is somewhat shortchanged despite her best efforts.

Much like Swinton, Mr. Elba has proven himself a hardworking actor who can rise to nearly any role. This year alone, we’ve seen him voice Knuckles in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2, reprise his role as HEIMDALL in THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER (even if it was just a post-credits cameo), and take on a ferocious lion in BEAST just last week! Here, Mr. Elba is given a much more eccentric and monumental role to rise to. Running the gamut from some outright funny scenes to doomed tragic romances, the Djinn’s past stories, as told by the Djinn to Swinton’s character, are mini epics unto themselves. We truly grow to sympathize with him over the titular three thousand years, and it’s a shame the inconsistent nature of the source material never quite lets it take off.

The biggest weakness of LONGING is the same one that plagued the silent 1923 version of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. That film featured the story of Moses in Egypt, and was followed by a then-contemporary story of two brothers who took possible paths in life. LONGING is similarly set in the modern world with Elba’s character telling his life story in the distant ancient past. The weakness of both films? After having seen the splendor and epic nature of the Ancient World, contemporary society just seems ho-hum and boring by comparison. The two leads do a good job, but one can’t help but wonder if the movie would’ve worked better focusing almost exclusively on the “past story” and fleshing it out more; the stories we get feel like “snapshots” rather than fully realized. To say the movie is uneven would be an understatement, though I won’t deny it did still manage to hit emotional highs and lows alike.

The other key weakness is that the filmmakers simply had no idea how or when to stop the movie. Instead, a third act that’s set entirely in the (far less interesting) modern world drags on with no end in sight, and it’s painfully dull. Sequences and characters in this part of the movie feel unnecessary and tertiary at best. When a movie clocks in at under two hours and it feels like it’s being dragged out, that’s never a good sign. This just goes back to my earlier point – why not make the whole movie about the Djinn’s story through the past, better flesh out those sequences, and make the modern scenes nothing more than a brief appendix?

LONGING is the latest in a long line of movies I liked, but wanted to love. Similar to the late Roger Ebert’s sentiments regarding WATERWORLD, it’s one of those films you’re not disappointed to have seen, but still can’t quite recommend. I wouldn’t waste one of my three wishes on this one despite its ambition.