Life Itself
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDan Fogelman
Written byDan Fogelman
Produced by
Starring
Narrated by
CinematographyBrett Pawlak
Edited byJulie Monroe
Music byFederico Jusid
Production
companies
Distributed byAmazon Studios
Release dates
  • September 8, 2018 (2018-09-08) (TIFF)
  • September 21, 2018 (2018-09-21) (United States)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Spanish
Budget$10 million[2]
Box office$8 million[3]

Life Itself is a 2018 American psychological drama film written, co-produced and directed by Dan Fogelman. It stars Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas, and follows multiple couples over numerous generations, and their connections to a single event.

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 21, 2018, by Amazon Studios. Life Itself was largely panned by critics, who criticized Fogelman's screenplay and direction, and calling it "simultaneously overwrought and underwhelming."[4]

Plot

Chapter One – The Hero

Narrator Samuel L. Jackson introduces Henry as the hero, while he is talking to his therapist, Dr. Cait Morris. Unimpressed, he focuses on Cait. As she is crossing the street, Will Dempsey tells her he is a big fan, causing her to be hit by a bus. Breaking the narration, Sam appears physically, insisting Cait is fine as she is the hero. Seeing she is dead, he leaves.

This scene is actually part of Will's script. Another narrator takes over, explaining Cait is Will's therapist he has been seeing since his release from a psychiatric hospital. Flashbacks show Will and his wife Abby's married life. She is a Bob Dylan fan, and pregnant.

Abby's parents died in a car accident, while she sat in the backseat. Sent to live with her Uncle Joe, he sexually abused her until her teens, when she threatened to kill him if he touched her again.

Abby and Will meet in college, they date and he proposes less than a year later. She meets his parents Irwin and Linda. Another time, Abby excitedly talks to Will about her thesis on the unreliable narrator: life is the ultimate unreliable narrator as it is so tricky and surprising.

In the present, Will wonders what happened. Cait pushes Will to remember "that day" after which he was institutionalized. After lunch with his parents, as they are walking, Abby tells him the baby is a girl and wants to name her Dylan. Distracted, Abby is struck by a bus, as a little boy watches from inside. She died but the baby survived. Will then shoots himself dead in front of Cait.

Chapter Two – Dylan Dempsey

Will and Abby's daughter Dylan, born of death and tragedy, has a dark cloud following her. Raised by her grandparents, her grandmother Linda, passes away when she is 6. Dylan's dog dies when she is 7, leading to a talk with her grandfather Irwin about death. On her 21st birthday, Dylan goes out, performing a rendition of To Make You Feel My Love with her band.

After the show, Dylan fights another girl before leaving the venue. Sitting down on a bench to smoke a joint, she imagines her mother's final moment. Waking up crying with the bus in front of her, she seemingly sees the young boy on the bus asking her if she is okay.

Chapter Three – The Gonzalez Family

In Spain, Vincent Saccione owns an olive plantation. Inviting his worker Javier Gonzalez inside, he tells him how his Italian father impregnated his Spanish mother and then shunned them both. Saccione inherited his wealth and land as his father left no will. He promotes Javier to foreman, which includes living in the house.

Javier shares the news with his beloved girlfriend Isabel Diaz. Building a life together, they get married and become parents to Rodrigo. Saccione often visits mother and son while Javier is out working. He gifts Rodrigo a globe, stimulating his interest in seeing NYC. Saccione apologizes for intruding, although Isabel insists that Rodrigo enjoys his visits. However, Javier disapproves and returns the globe.

Javier takes his family to see NYC. Rodrigo is enjoying himself, until he distracts their bus driver, causing him to hit Abby. So, Rodrigo becomes traumatized.

Back home, Javier and Isabel's marriage is strained as they struggle to take care of sleepless Rodrigo. Asking for Saccione's help, Javier becomes jealous. Feeling his wife and son love Saccione more than him, he confronts him. When he guiltily says he loves them both, Javier leaves although Isabel begs him to stay. Staying with Saccione, she makes it clear she won't love him like she loves Javier.

Chapter Four – Rodrigo Gonzalez

Rodrigo grows up and goes to college in NYC. He starts a relationship with Shari, another student from Long Island. He returns home when Isabel contracts cancer. Rodrigo wants to stay, but she tells him goodbye.

The most important day in Rodrigo's life starts with Shari pranking him on April Fool's Day, saying she is pregnant. When she admits it wasn't true, Rodrigo breaks up with her, feeling flabbergasted. In Spain, Isabel has little time left, so Javier arrives for the first time in years. As Saccione had kept him updated on his family, he spends one final moment with Isabel. Hearing his mom had died, distraught, Rodrigo jogs through the city. Finding Dylan crying on the bench, he asks her if she is okay.

Chapter Five – Elena Dempsey-Gonzalez

Dylan and Rodrigo's daughter Elena narrates, reading from her book, "Life Itself", the story of everything that led to her parents' meeting, she repeats what Isabel told Rodrigo: even if life brings us to our knees, if we look hard enough, we will find love. She concludes her story saying that one moment shaped her entire life, and that she sees both of her grandmothers (Abby and Isabel) in herself.

The last scene is a brief clip of Will admiring a pregnant Abby.

Cast

  • Oscar Isaac as William “Will” Dempsey, Abigail’s husband, Dylan’s father and Irwin and Linda’s son
  • Olivia Wilde as Abigail “Abby” Lesher, William's wife and Dylan’s mother
  • Mandy Patinkin as Irwin Dempsey, William's father, Dylan’s grandfather and Linda’s husband
  • Jean Smart as Linda Dempsey, William's mother, Dylan’s grandmother and Irwin’s wife
  • Olivia Cooke as Dylan Dempsey, William and Abigail’s daughter, Irwin and Linda’s granddaughter, Rodrigo’s wife and Elena’s mother
    • Kya Kruse as Young Dylan
    • Alisa Sushkova as Baby Dylan
  • Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Javier González, Rodrigo’s father and Isabel’s husband
  • Laia Costa as Isabel Díaz, Rodrigo’s mother and Javier’s wife
  • Àlex Monner as Rodrigo González, Javier and Isabel's son, Shari’s boyfriend, Dylan’s husband and Elena’s father
    • Yeray Alba Leon as 14-year-old Rodrigo
    • Pablo Lagüens Abad as 13-year-old Rodrigo
    • Javier Verdugo Luque as 10-year-old Rodrigo
    • Adrian Marrero as 7–10-year-old Rodrigo
  • Isabel Durant as Shari Dickstein, Rodrigo's immature girlfriend
  • Lorenza Izzo as Elena Dempsey-González, Rodrigo and Dylan's daughter
  • Annette Bening as Dr. Caitlin Morris
  • Antonio Banderas as Vincent Saccione
  • Samuel L. Jackson as himself
  • Jake Robinson as Henry

Production

In August 2016, FilmNation Entertainment acquired the film's script, by Dan Fogelman, who also directed the film; FilmNation had bought the script after it appeared on The Black List.[5] Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey served as producers on the film under their Temple Hill Entertainment banner.[6] In November 2016, Oscar Isaac joined the cast.[7] In January 2017, Olivia Cooke, Antonio Banderas, Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia Wilde and Laia Costa were also added,[8] and in March 2017, Annette Bening joined as well, alongside Mandy Patinkin and Alex Monner.[9]

Principal photography began on March 13, 2017[10] in New York City, and continued in Spain in May.[11]

Release

In December 2017, a fierce bidding war for distribution rights for the film, fought between Amazon Studios, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures, concluded with Amazon Studios winning the rights with a $10-million-dollar-plus bid.[12]

The film premiered on September 8, 2018, at the Toronto International Film Festival,[13] and was theatrically released on September 21, 2018, in the United States.[14] It was released on January 4, 2019, in the United Kingdom.[15]

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada and China, Life Itself was released alongside The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Assassination Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9, and was projected to gross $4–6 million from 2,578 theaters during its opening weekend.[16] It brought in $2.1 million over its first weekend, finishing 11th, behind a number of films that ranged from their second to seventh week in theaters.[17] This was the second worst opening, since 1982, by a film that opened at over 2,500 theaters.[2][18]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 13%, based on 153 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A mawkish melodrama that means less the more it tries to say, Life Itself suggests writer-director Dan Fogelman's talents are best suited to television."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 21 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and a 47% "definite recommend".[2]

Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a "D", saying: "Life Itself thinks you're stupid. Or, if not stupid, unable to understand how a movie should work. It's a movie made for people who can't be trusted to understand any storytelling unless it's not just spoon-fed but ladled on, piled high, and explained via montage and voiceover."[21] A. O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times, calls it an "inadvertently hilarious" film, filled with "parental slaughter ... (where) mothers and fathers are hit by buses, perish in car accidents, commit suicide and succumb to cancer," though he praises Isaac, Wilde, Costa, and Peris-Mencheta (playing the "starting" couples in the two countries) for their acting.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Life Itself". AMC Theatres. Archived from the original on October 1, 2018. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 23, 2018). "'The House With A Clock In Its Walls' Sounding Near $27M Alarm; Counterprogramming Still In Deep Sleep". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Life Itself (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  4. ↑ Giles, Jeff (September 20, 2018). "The House with a Clock in Its Walls Ticks Along Tolerably". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  5. ↑ Galuppo, Mia (January 31, 2017). "Olivia Cooke, Samuel L. Jackson Join Oscar Isaac in Relationship Drama Life Itself". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  6. ↑ Fleming Jr, Mike (August 16, 2016). "FilmNation Lands Life Itself, Hot Spec By Crazy, Stupid, Love's Dan Fogelman". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (November 1, 2016). "Oscar Isaac Set For Life Itself Film By This Is Us Creator Dan Fogelman". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  8. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 31, 2017). "Hot Package: This Is Us Creator Dan Fogelman Casts Life Itself". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  9. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 13, 2017). "Annette Bening Set For Life, Itself, Helmed By This Is Us Creator Dan Fogelman". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Life Itself". Directors Guild of America. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  11. ↑ McNary, Dave (March 13, 2017). "Annette Bening Joins Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde in Dan Fogelman's Life, Itself". Variety. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  12. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (December 5, 2017). "Amazon Wins $10 Million U.S. Rights Auction For This Is Us Creator Dan Fogelman Film Life Itself". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  13. ↑ Vlessing, Etan (July 24, 2018). "Toronto: Timothee Chalamet Starrer 'Beautiful Boy,' Dan Fogelman's 'Life Itself' Among Festival Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  14. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 7, 2018). "Amazon Sets Dan Fogelman Film Life Itself For Fall Release". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  15. ↑ "LIFE ITSELF". Filmoria.co.uk. 28 September 2018. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  16. ↑ Fuster, Jeremy (September 18, 2018). "Can 'House With a Clock in Its Walls' Become the Fall's First Family Box Office Hit?". TheWrap. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results: September 21-23, 2018". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  18. ↑ "Worst Wide Openings: 1982–Present". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  19. ↑ "Life Itself (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 2018-09-15. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Life Itself reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2018.
  21. ↑ Erbland, Kate (September 9, 2018). "'Life Itself' Review: Dan Fogelman's Demented, Interconnected, and Morbid Epic Is Built on Bad Storytelling — TIFF". IndieWire. Archived from the original on September 9, 2018. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  22. ↑ Scott, A. O. (September 19, 2018). "Review: It's Called 'Life Itself,' and Yet Everyone's Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
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