Parents' Guide to Here

Zemeckis is one of cinema's great innovators, and while this anthology sometimes feels more like a Disney Epcot experience than a movie, you've got to respect the ambition behind it. Through Here's fly-on-the-wall perspective, viewers travel through time in a way that tries to offer a visual representation of the quantum physics theorem that time is a construct—it's all happening simultaneously. The camera angle never budges, capturing events major and mundane that happen on the same spot in what will ultimately become New Jersey, beginning with the love story of an ancient Indigenous couple. Then, jumping back and forth in time, we follow the comings and goings of William Franklin (son of Ben), an Edwardian-era aviator and his family, 1920s newlyweds, a post-World War II couple raising a family, their son who continues to live with them after his marriage, and a Black family with a teenager in the present day.

The storylines' multiple snippets make it challenging to get emotionally invested in any one couple's life, but the heart of the story is aspiring graphic artist Richard (Hanks), whose life plans are derailed by his girlfriend Margaret's (Wright) unplanned pregnancy. Both put aside their personal dreams and desires to raise Vanessa (Zsa Zsa Zemeckis), but, as times change, their individual needs for personal fulfillment catch up to them. Director Zemeckis, the driving force behind motion capture animation, ages and de-ages these familiar faces, allowing Hanks and Wright to show their range as they start as randy teens and mature through their characters' sunset years. In many ways, Here is a marvel, and it could be a good conversation starter for multigenerational families to watch together. But if you're considering it for sheer entertainment value, skip it.