'Three Thousand Years of Longing' film review: Modern take on the 'magical three wishes' story
George Millers twist the timeless "genie in a bottle" story into a rumination of love, hope and loneliness in the drama 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' (in theaters Aug. 26).
In short: Contented scholar Alithea (Tilda Swinton) encounters a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.
Anyone expecting the 'Mad Max' filmmaker's latest work to be anything like 'Fury Road' will be disappointed - and these same people probably forget that Miller also directed 'Babe: Pig in the City,' 'Happy Feet' and 'Lorenzo's Oil.' Writer-director Miller's newest work is simultaneously grand in scale and intimate in scope. For a story about an powerful genie capable of fulfilling virtually any wish, 'Longing' lingers more on existential isolation of life - either as a solitary human or as an immortal being bound to a lamp for most of his life.
'Longing' is a story that itself comments on the cautionary aspects of the "three magical wishes" trope - and oddly this thoughtful drama finds the perfect foil to the nigh all-powerful, wish-granting genie: a self-described "adequately happy" scholar. Of all the people in the world who could have have ended up in possession of the Djinn's lamp, it's kinda perfect that Alithea has few, if any, true wants in the world. Her outward lack of desire is completely antithetical to the entire "wish for anything" premise. Her lack of want allows the script to consider the unattainable suddenly made attainable. Swinton radiates an outward contentment that belies Alithea's quiet loneliness.
While 'Longing' allows Alithea to voice the cautionary aspects of wishing, the Djinn recalling his thousands of years of loneliness forms the story's backbone. 'Longing' has two distinct, parallel tracks: Alithea and the Djinn in the present, conversing inside a hotel, interspersed between the Djinn recounting his last 3,000 years. These visually stunning flashback sequences ... and tend toward the "boring" at times. The first story, detailing the Djinn's first imprisonment, calibrates the audience to expect stories that lean into more fantastic elements. But the following two stories meander a bit, lacking the focus or energy as that initial flashback. Now, in fairness to 'Longing,' the sometimes tedious and mundane nature of these later flashbacks ... actually works to impress the daunting seeming eternity trapped in a bottle for hundreds and hundred years. Elba fans might be disappointed that his character is merely a supporting player in the Djinn's flashbacks - and sometimes he is merely the narrator for large chunks of his stories.
The first two acts allow the Djinn to tell his millennia-spanning story, but 'Longing' takes a pretty sharp turn in the third act. Thematically this third act ties the story together nicely, weaving together Alithea's solitary life with the Djinn's relationships. However, the third act is entirely dependent on a character choice, on Alithea's part, that feels very out of character and unearned. It's worth noting the hotel room conversation between Alithea and the Djinn ... takes place entirely within the span of a few hours. The emotional effectiveness of this final act entirely depends on the audience's buy-in into Alithea's decision - and it's subsequent consequences.
Final verdict: George Miller's thoughtful rumination of loneliness and time is thematically ambitious and visually stunning, but it does risks not aligning with audience expectations and a third act dependent on some iffy character choices.
Score: 3/5
'Three Thousand Years of Longing' opens in theaters nationwide Aug. 26. This drama has a runtime of 108 minutes and is rated R for some sexual content, graphic nudity and brief violence.
