What to Watch Verdict
Three Thousand Years of Longing, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, is just the ticket for anyone wishing for something different to watch.
Pros
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Idris Elba gives a standout performance
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George Miller goes big in new ways
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Slow-paced but enchanting storytelling
Cons
- -
Loses some of its momentum toward the end
The last time moviegoers went to the theaters for a George Miller movie, they got the fully revved action concerto of Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller’s latest movie, Three Thousand Years of Longing is about as big a 180 turn as you could make and yet it still manages to capture the attention in numerous ways. Not least of which is a standout performance from Idris Elba — wholly different from his most famous roles.
Three Thousand Years of Longing follows Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), an academic who believes she is content with her solitary life. On a trip to Istanbul, in the Grand Bazaar, she finds a glass bottle. Cleaning it unleashes a djinn (genie) played by Idris Elba who is bound to grant her three wishes so that he can earn his freedom. Alithea is all too familiar with how the stories of people making wishes turn out to have bad endings, so the djinn tells her his story and about those before her that have made wishes.
Based upon a short story by A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, Miller paints a fantastical scene that takes in the vast sweep of human history — from the time of the Queen of Sheeba and King Solomon to the modern-day streets of London and beyond. Helping him build this on-screen spectacle are cinematographer John Seale (reuniting after Mad Max: Fury Road), Kym Barrett (costumes) and Roger Ford (production design).
While the scope is as vast as Miller’s previous outing, Three Thousand Years is grand where Fury Road was dusty. The heart of the movie is the stories that Elba’s Djinn tells Swinton’s Alithea. We may see them play out in visually engaging detail but, by design, the movie never fully immerses us in them — the Djinn narrates, then Alithea eagerly analyzes key bits of detail. The stop/start element might sound a bit annoying, but it's neither jarring nor disappointing, thanks to Elba.
Idris Elba has played tough guys, funny guys, he's been the bad guy and the good guy. He’s played a cat and, in a recent entry (Beast), he's fought one. But in Three Thousand Years of Longing, his djinn is a weary and sorrowful character, which isn't something we've seen much of in Elba’s career. But here he plays it with great skill. So much rides on Elba’s narration to convey the themes of the movie, but his performance delivers something fresh and new.
His co-star, Tilda Swinton, is as always a fun watch, though it’s hard for her deliberately reserved and analytical character to match Elba's for narrative heft. In the second half the film transitions from the djinn’s stories to Alithea's perspective and the momentum is lost — along with much of the fantastical elements — as we swap Istanbul and past centuries for London in the 2020s.
It’s not that Three Thousand Years of Longing completely loses its thread during this section but the switch is a tad deflating. Overall though, the movie ends on a lovely note.
You should definitely know what you’re getting into with Three Thousand Years of Longing. If you see that it’s an Idris Elba movie from the director who made Mad Max: Fury Road (or watch the trailer that highlights many of the trippy, extraordinary aspects of the movie), you may think you’re in line for a more lively summer blockbuster. This movie is not that.
It is a more reflective movie, where much comes from the quiet moments and the smaller details. (Though we do still recommend seeing the movie on the big screen to appreciate its expansive, otherworldly elements.) If you come with that in mind, this fantasy is a rewarding tale.
Three Thousand Years of Longing is now playing exclusively in movie theaters in the US. It's out in the UK on September 2.
