Here (2024 film)

Film by Robert Zemeckis

Here

Canadian theatrical release poster

Directed by| Robert Zemeckis
Screenplay by|

* Eric Roth
* Robert Zemeckis

Based on| Here
by Richard McGuire
Produced by|

* Robert Zemeckis
* Jack Rapke
* Derek Hogue
* Bill Block

Starring|

* Tom Hanks
* Robin Wright
* Paul Bettany
* Kelly Reilly

Cinematography| Don Burgess
Edited by| Jesse Goldsmith
Music by| Alan Silvestri[1]

Production
companies

* Miramax[2]
* ImageMovers

Distributed by| TriStar Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing)

Release dates

* October 25, 2024 (2024-10-25) (AFI Fest)
* November 1, 2024 (2024-11-01) (United States)

Running time

| 104 minutes[3]
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $45–50 million[4][5]
Box office| $15.8 million[6][7]

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.[8][9] Echoing the source material, the film is told in a nonlinear fashion: using a locked-down or "static shot" technique, the story covers a single plot of land and its inhabitants, from the distant past to the 21st century. During the film, the screen is often subdivided into panes, presenting events from different times simultaneously. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly, with digital de-aging via generative artificial intelligence being used on much of the cast to have them portray their characters over time.

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.[10] The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $15.8 million.

## Plot

[edit]

The film is presented in a nonlinear narrative. The following is a linear summary of the 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,[11] and a storyline follows a man and woman, their courtship, family, and eventually the woman's death. The man sees a hummingbird, which is seen periodically throughout the film, after his wife's burial.

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).[12] 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 has a deep passion for flying airplanes and later dies of the Spanish flu.[13]

Later inhabitants of the house include the bohemian couple Lee, an inventor, and Stella Beekman, a pin-up model, who live there in the 1940s before and during World War II. Lee 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.

Sometime in the 1970s, Rose suffers a debilitating stroke and as a result, she and Al move to Florida to check into a rehabilitation facility. Al decides to hand the house over to Richard and Margaret, much to Margaret's chagrin.

In the early 2000s, sometime after Rose's death, Al moves back in. Not long after, Richard and Margaret divorce, though they remain friends. Richard ultimately ends up selling the house after Al dies.

By the mid-to-late 2010s, the house is inhabited by 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 well.

As an elderly man, Richard takes Margaret—who now has dementia—to the empty house in 2024. He tries to remind her of several special events they shared "Here" and the time Vanessa, as a child, lost a blue ribbon from school, which finally triggers all her happy memories of their shared lives. The stationary camera then starts to pan away, and shows the only outside shot of the original house as seen from William Franklin's mansion roof. A hummingbird appears in the final scene.

On the DVD, several deleted scenes are included, with one showing a mammoth roaming during the Ice age, while another shows the eventual destruction of the house by a flood that slowly recedes to become a marsh.

## Cast

[edit]

* Tom Hanks as Richard Young[14]
* Robin Wright as Margaret Young, Richard's wife[14]
* Paul Bettany as Al Young, Rose's husband and Richard's father[14]
* Kelly Reilly as Rose Young, Al's wife and Richard's mother[14]
* Lauren McQueen as Elizabeth Young
* Beau Gadsdon as teen Elizabeth
* Harry Marcus as Jimmy Young
* Zsa Zsa Zemeckis as Vanessa Young, Richard and Margaret's daughter
* Michelle Dockery as Pauline Harter
* Gwilym Lee as John Harter, Pauline's husband
* David Fynn as Lee Beekman, an inventor
* Ophelia Lovibond as Stella Beekman, a pin-up model
* Nicholas Pinnock as Devon Harris[15]
* Nikki Amuka-Bird as Helen Harris, Devon's wife
* Anya Marco Harris as Raquel, Devon and Helen's housekeeper
* Tony Way as Ted
* Jemima Rooper as Virginia
* Joel Oulette as Indigenous Man
* Dannie McCallum as Indigenous Woman
* Daniel Betts as William Franklin
* Keith Bartlett as Benjamin Franklin
* Mohammed George as carriage driver
* Lilly Aspell as Bethany
* Jonathan Aris as Earl Higgins
* Angus Wright as Gilbert Moore, C.H.H.P
* Stuart Bowman as businessman
* Dexter Sol Ansell as boy in dress

## Production

[edit]

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.[16]

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.[17] Robin Wright was cast before the investor's announcement; in September, Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly joined,[18][19] followed by Leslie Zemeckis in February 2023,[20] and Michelle Dockery and Gwilym Lee in April.[21][22] 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.[23]

Production began by January 2023 in Pinewood Studios.[24] The production team used 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.[25]

## Release

[edit]

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.[26] The film was 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.[8] In June 2024, Sony Pictures moved the film's wide release to November 15, 2024,[27] and in August, they brought it forward two weeks to November 1, 2024.[28] Other distributors released 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.[5]

## Reception

[edit]

### Box office

[edit]

In the United States and Canada, Here debuted to $4.9 million from 2,647 theaters, finishing in fifth place.[4][29] It then finished in eighth with $2.4 million in its sophomore weekend (a drop of 51%),[30] before falling out of the top 10 in subsequent weeks.[31][32]

### Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 177 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10. 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."[33] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 39 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[34] 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).[35]

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."[36]

Regarding the film's adaptation of the McGuire original and its formalistic aspirations, Rolling Stone wrote: "On the page, the limitations somehow feel groundbreaking and expansive. Onscreen, the film somehow reduces the same notion of one angle/one thousand different moments to little more than a blinkered gimmick.[37] Similarly, The Australian's critic gave the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars, writing: "This film is interesting to look at if you are interested in movie-making technique, but as a drama it is rather undramatic."[38]

Pop culture writer Nathan Rabin also gave the film one out of five stars, writing that "Here fails as a movie, a play, an experiment and an art installation. It fails in every way that a movie can fail" and calling it "another sad illustration of the creative decline of a once-great filmmaker".[39]

### Accolades

[edit]

Award  | Date of ceremony  | Category  | Recipient(s)  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

Chicago International Film Festival | October 27, 2024 | Founder's Legacy Award  | Robert Zemeckis | Honored  | [40]
Visual Effects Society Awards | February 11, 2025 | Emerging Technology Award  | Jo Plaete, Oriel Frigo, Tomas Koutsky, Matteo Oliviero Dancy (for "Neural Performance Toolset" )  | Won  | [41]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Alan Silvestri Scoring Robert Zemeckis' 'Here'". Film Music Reporter. September 18, 2023. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
2. ^ "Here (2024)". Moviefone. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
3. ^ "Here (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. November 14, 2024. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
4. ^ a b Rebecca Rubin (November 3, 2024). "Box Office: Tom Hanks and Robin Wright's 'Here' Fizzles With $5 Million as 'Venom 3' Rules Again". Variety. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
5. ^ a b Wiseman, Andreas (September 26, 2024). "Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis' "Unique" 'Forrest Gump' Reunion 'Here' Sells Around The World For Miramax, Including To Amazon MGM In Key Markets". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
6. ^ "Here (2024)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
7. ^ "Here – Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
8. ^ a b Stephan, Katcy (March 29, 2024). "Robert Zemeckis' 'Here' With Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Lands November Release". Variety. Archived from the original on April 10, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
9. ^ "Here". Writers Guild of America West. Archived from the original on July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
10. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 3, 2024). "AFI Fest Sets World Premiere Of Robert Zemeckis' 'Here' As Centerpiece Gala". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
11. ^ Fear, David (November 1, 2024). "'Here' Is the world's saddest Zillow ad starring Tom Hanks". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
12. ^ Berardinelli, James (November 1, 2024). "Here (United States, 2024)". Reel Views.
13. ^ Gibbs, Patrick (October 31, 2024). "FILM REVIEW: HERE". SLUG.
14. ^ a b c d Breznican, Anthony (June 25, 2024). "'Here': Robert Zemeckis's New Movie Spans a Century, but the Camera Never Moves". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on June 25, 2024. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
15. ^ Rooney, David (October 25, 2024). "'Here' Review: Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Get Boxed in by Banal Story in Robert Zemeckis' Fixed-Camera Experiment". The Hollywood Reporter.
16. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 17, 2022). "Hot Package: Forrest Gump Trio Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth Team For Graphic Novel Adaptation Here". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
17. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (May 11, 2022). "Sony Pictures Lands U.S. Rights To Miramax's Here; Robin Wright Joins Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth In Forrest Gump Reteam – Cannes Market". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
18. ^ Kroll, Justin (September 27, 2022). "Paul Bettany To Co-Star Opposite Tom Hanks And Robin Wright In Robert Zemeckis' Here For Miramax And Sony". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
19. ^ Kroll, Justin (September 29, 2022). "Yellowstone's Kelly Reilly Joins Tom Hanks In Robert Zemeckis' Here For Miramax and Sony". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
20. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 8, 2023). "Filmmaker Leslie Zemeckis Signs With Buchwald". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
21. ^ Kroll, Justin (April 10, 2023). "Michelle Dockery Joins Tom Hanks in Robert Zemeckis' Here". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
22. ^ "Gwilym Lee". Hamilton Hodell. Archived from the original on May 11, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
23. ^ "Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Are Reuniting with 'Forrest Gump' Director for New Film". Yahoo!. February 18, 2023. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
24. ^ Hall, James (July 14, 2023). "Inside Hollywood's big deepfake scandal – and why actors are striking over it". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 25, 2024. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
25. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (January 31, 2023). "Tom Hanks, Robin Wright to Be De-aged in Robert Zemeckis' New Movie Using Metaphysic AI Tool". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
26. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 3, 2024). "AFI Fest Sets World Premiere Of Robert Zemeckis' Here as Centerpiece Gala". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 3, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
27. ^ Grobar, Matt (June 21, 2024). "Sony Sets Wide November Release For Robert Zemeckis' 'Here'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 22, 2024. Retrieved June 22, 2024.
28. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony; Grobar, Matt (August 6, 2024). "Sony Going Earlier With Tom Hanks, Robin Wright-Robert Zemeckis Re-Team Here". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 6, 2024. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
29. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 2, 2024). "'Venom: The Last Dance' Second Weekend Sees $22M+, 'Forrest Gump' Reteam 'Here' Isn't There With $5M+ Opening – Box Office Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
30. ^ "'Venom: The Last Dance' $18M+, 'Christmas Pageant' & 'Heretic' Remain In Dead Heat For No. 2 With $12M+ Apiece – Veterans Day Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. November 12, 2024. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
31. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 17, 2024). "Dwayne Johnson & Chris Evans' $200M+ Christmas Action Movie 'Red One' Opening To $34M: Is It A Bomb Or A Streamer's Rounding Error? — Saturday AM Box Office". Deadline. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
32. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 24, 2024). "'Wicked' & 'Gladiator II' AKA 'Glicked' Fuel $205M Combined Weekend, Best Pre-Thanksgiving Frame In 11 Years — Sunday AM Box Office Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
33. ^ "Here". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
34. ^ "Here". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
35. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 3, 2024). "'Here' Misfires With $5M; Robert Zemeckis Says "Theatrical Movie Business Is In A Stressful Situation Right Now": What Happened With 'Forrest Gump' Reteam At B.O." Deadline. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
36. ^ Sobczynski, Peter (October 28, 2024). "Here". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
37. ^ Fear, David (November 1, 2024). "'Here' is the World's Saddest Zillow ad Starring Tom Hanks". Movie Review. Rolling Stone.
38. ^ Romei, Stephen (November 3, 2024). "Tom Hanks De-aged in 'Here', Robert Zemeckis' Latest Film". The Australian.
39. ^ Rabin, Nathan (November 2, 2024). "Robert Zemeckis' Here is an Adrenochrome-Powered Disaster". Nathan Rabin's Bad Ideas. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
40. ^ Roche, Barbara (September 24, 2024). "60th Chicago International Film Festival full lineup and schedule". Reel Chicago News. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
41. ^ Pederson, Erik (January 14, 2025). "VES Awards Nominations: Sandworms, Apes, Felines & Tornadoes Vie For Top Film Prize". Deadline. Retrieved January 14, 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Here at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Robert Zemeckis

* I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)
* Used Cars (1980)
* Romancing the Stone (1984)
* Back to the Future (1985)
* Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
* Back to the Future Part II (1989)
* Back to the Future Part III (1990)
* Two-Fisted Tales (1992)
* Death Becomes Her (1992)
* Forrest Gump (1994)
* Contact (1997)
* What Lies Beneath (2000)
* Cast Away (2000)
* The Polar Express (2004)
* Beowulf (2007)
* A Christmas Carol (2009)
* Flight (2012)
* The Walk (2015)
* Doc Brown Saves the World (2015)
* Allied (2016)
* Welcome to Marwen (2018)
* The Witches (2020)
* Pinocchio (2022)
* Here (2024)

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