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Robert Zemeckis returned to his hometown for closing night of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival with “Here.” Zemeckis often produces movies at the fore-front of technology (Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), The Polar Express (2004)). “Here” is cinematically ground-breaking. Since the entire film is shot in the same living room from a single camera angle in the home of Alan and Rose Young (Rose and Al were the real first names of Zemeckis’ parents on the South side of Chicago), it is a multi-generational look at the Young family. Richard (Tom Hanks) and Margaret (Robin Wright), the reunited stars of Forrest Gump (1994), are the primary couple followed.
A.I. DE-AGING
The A.I. de-aging (Metaphysic A.I.) really works well here. There were complaints when I first saw it used in Scorsese’s “The Irishman” in 2019. I heard none after “Here,” 5 years later. Zemeckis at age 72, with a career that began in 1972, has 35 films as director, nearly as many as writer, and 55 as producer. Other directors who started out in Chicago with their first films include Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Taylor Hackford and William Friedkin. Zemeckis is in storied company and will certainly remain among the Greats as he directs yet another cinematic masterpiece.
ONE ROOM
“Here” is shot in one room of the family’s house from one camera angle. That sounds like a play, but picture-frame-like boxes are super-imposed on the screen at various points to depict other families in other eras who have lived in the same house. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Eric Roth and Zemeckis and told much in the style of the acclaimed graphic novel by Richard McGuire on which it is based, the story travels through generations. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright are the primary stars of this tale of love, loss, laughter and life. Because the camera is in one spot, at times the actors walk towards it, as we might see television hosts on late-night talk shows walk up to the camera. It’s new and original. Like the split-screen technique (which I remember from 1968’s “The Boston Strangler” with Tony Curtis, although it was first used in “The Parent Trap” by Disney in 1961), I wouldn’t want to see every single film done this way, but when something works, it works. With Zemeckis at the helm, it works in “Here.”
The unusual original use of a picture-frame-like box, inserted inside the screen, highlights everything from the dinosaur age to the present. These cut-aways keep the audience from getting the sense of claustrophobia experienced at times in 2022’s “The Whale,” when Brendan Fraser’s character never left his living room. It also highlights, briefly, other families who have lived in the same house all the way back to the time of Benjamin Franklin and before. It is a little like thumbing through a photo book and recalling the moment in time when each was taken, or turning on the radio to hear a favorite tune that instantly takes you back to a particular event in your life.
FOUNDERS AWARD
Chicago International Film Founder Michael Kutza (R) presents Director Robert Zemeckis (L) with the Founders Award at the closing night of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival on October 27, 2025.
Zemeckis received the Founders’ Award from retired Chicago International Film Festival founder Michael Kutza, who started the festival in 1964. The award applauded Zemeckis for his “impeccably crafted and deeply moving stories,” which includes the five mentioned above, as well as “Castaway,” “Flight,” “What Lies Beneath,” “Romancing the Stone” and a host of others. Zemeckis has directed three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant: Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994).
DESCRIBING “HERE’S” UNIQUE STYLE
In presenting Zemeckis with the Founders’ Award, Michael Kutza declared “Here” to be Zemeckis’ “Lawrence of Arabia.” If that accolade doesn’t resonate with you, consider that the choice of moments to guide the audience was spot-on. We see the Three Stooges and Red Skelton on the living room television set. Jane Fonda is seen doing aerobics. The “Theme from a Summer Place” saturates the air waves of 1963. Margaret is wearing the “flip” hair-do of the 60’s when Richard brings her home to meet his parents for the first time. The news on the television set in the background tells us that the Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor. Thanksgivings of yesteryear are revisited. There is sometimes high drama in the living room, from characters having medical emergencies. Across the street, seen through a picture window, is a house where Benjamin Franklin once lived, so we can infer that this is Philadelphia. That East coast location is further borne out by the snow that periodically falls outside the window, most memorably during Richard’s apology to Margaret for basically ignoring her wishes throughout their marriage. Zemeckis has said, “You can examine the truth about something that happened in the past, because you’ve been able to look at it through the prism of time.” Examining that prism of time is exactly what “Here” does.
MUSIC
Director Robert Zemeckis in Chicago at the close of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival on October 27, 2024 accepting the Founders’ Award.
Alan Silvestri has worked on every Zemeckis film since “Romancing the Stone,” a 40-year partnership. The music in “Here” is wonderful and adds immeasurably to the film’s appeal. It is, once-again, Oscar-worthy. Silvestri has had 2 Oscar nominations (for Zemecki’s “Forrest Gump” in 1994 and “The Polar Express” in 2004), 2 Golden Globe nominations, 3 Grammy and 2 Emmys. Silvestri at 74 and Zemeckis at 72 demonstrate their maturity in this film. They have lived life and can relate to the young wife or husband whose youthful dreams are dashed as real life happens while they’re making other plans.
THEMES
The life experiences of Richard and Margaret serve as a stand-in for those of us in the audience. Richard is a talented artist. In his youth, he wanted to attend school to become a graphic design artist. Instead, Margaret gets pregnant and Richard ends up selling insurance. Later, Margaret will ask Richard why he quit painting. He answers, “I had to make a living…Do you think I wanted to be done with my life when I was 22?”
Margaret always wanted to travel. She also wanted her own house, but ends up having to settle for living with her in-laws for many years. As old age takes its toll on Al and Rose, Richard and Margaret are called upon to step in and help them. Any time Margaret brings up her desire for a house of her own, Richard will say that it is too expensive, to the point that Margaret eventually goes to work. Richard does draw up house plans once, but, like everything else, those plans are pushed aside until later. As the script says, “You always find a reason not to do something.”
Richard will ultimately apologize for ignoring Margaret’s desires so many times over the years. (This was the second film at CIFF where husbands apologize to the wives they habitually ignored; the first was “Nightbitch.”) Among the truisms that will be articulated by a character or characters in the film are “Time flies” and “We did the best we could.” Satisfaction that their children are realizing their dreams comes through in the voices of the proud parents when Vanessa (played by Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, Zemeckis’ real-life daughter) goes to law school and becomes an attorney.
CONCLUSION
(L to R) Robert Zemeckis, Michael Kutza, Leslie Zemeckis and Zsa Zsa Zemeckis on the Red Carpet for “Here” at the closing night of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival on October 27, 2024.
In 2007 “Entertainment Weekly” magazine named Robert (Bob) Zemeckis Number 18 on its list of “the smartest people in Hollywood.” From his first start (with co-writer and collaborator Bob Gale) when they sold an episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Chopper (#1.15) in 1975, Zemeckis has experimented with digital movie-making (“The Polar Express,” 2004) saying, “I just love all types of movies, but I was especially interested in digital cinema. I was interested in films that could be done in digital.” On October 25, 2012, when Zemeckis came to Chicago to screen “Flight” (his 2nd showing at CIFF) he said, “All film techniques should disappear and be there to serve the characters and the story.”
Zemeckis has served the characters and the story in “Here” with his expert direction and these film techniques. The original, unique never-seen-before methods combine with great cinematography (Don Burgess), expert editing (Jesse Goldsmith) and wonderful set decoration and make-up teams to create another iconic Zemeckis film.
Miramax releases “Here” on November 1, 2024. It should attract fans of “Forrest Gump,” film fans, and anyone who enjoys a good story with life lessons well-told.
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