It’s been seven long years since George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road hit theaters, sweeping awards season and collectively breaking our brains with its wildly visionary storytelling. Now, Miller returns with his next opus, the sprawling fantasy adventure Three Thousand Years of Longing. Based on A.S. Byatt’s short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”, TTYL follows widowed academic Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) who finds a glass bottle in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. When she takes the bottle home, she is shocked to discover it contains a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes. But Binnie is no dummy: she knows that nothing good ever comes from free wishes, and she embarks a strange friendship with the Djinn that traverses time and history. Miller wrote the film with his daughter, Augusta Gore.
The trailer features Miller’s signature stunning visuals, gorgeous costumes, and rich cinematography. There is also a playful ease between Swinton and Elba that makes for an unlikely buddy comedy, especially when the two are hanging out in hotel bathrobes. The Djinn shares stories from his epic lifetime, regaling Binnie with the wishes he’s granted and the people he’s met throughout his existence.
The film premiered this week at the Cannes Film Festival, were it earned a six-minute standing ovation. TTYL has already garnered strong reviews and Oscar buzz. But not everyone was enamored with the film. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Three Thousand Years of Longing is well acted by two magnetic leads who spend most of their time in those nice plush hotel bathrobes, and it’s not like a million other movies, which is already a plus. But I struggled to find much depth of feeling in it. While there’s a liberal sprinkling of humor, the mysteries it conjures are windy and academic, though not the kind of academic that stands up to scrutiny.”
Still others found lots to love in the film:
Three Thousand Years of Longing hits theaters August 31, 2022.
(featured image: MGM)
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