In a film industry that, except for the months preceding the awards season, lives on endless sagas, remakes of past successes, and inexhaustible sequels, there are productions that are a breath of fresh air that make us believe it is still worth spending a few euros on a ticket and a tub of popcorn. If last summer Weapons was the feature film that made us regain faith, this summer, in which The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day have dominated the headlines, the movie you have to see is The End of Oak Street.
Released last Friday with less anticipation than it deserves, the film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, responsible for productions such as It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, stars Ewan McGregor and the woman who is currently doing it all in Hollywood, Anne Hathaway. A pair of stars that, however, may not be enough to compensate for how outlandish the premise of The End of Oak Street is, and perhaps the main reason why cinemas weren’t full this weekend.
Because, in his fourth feature, Mitchell invites us to travel back to the 1980s to see how a mysterious cosmic phenomenon transports an idyllic American subdivision into the age of the dinosaurs. We know, on paper it may seem too absurd to be real. On screen, The End of Oak Street is the blockbuster we all need at this point in the summer, and we tell you why.
The idyllic suburb that wasn’t that idyllic
The new film starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor opens with a surprisingly cheerful tone, in the middle of a neighborhood party where children run happily, families compete in sack races and barbecues are being prepared to satisfy the hunger of the numerous attendees. When the focus centers on the Platts, the reality is less pleasant: Denise (Hathaway) and Greg (McGregor) go from one disagreement to another, and argue about the contradictions that arise in teaching Audrey and Brian, their children, or the lack of involvement in family life.
Ewan McGregor y Anne Hathaway son Greg y Denise Platt en El final de Oak Street.
Because behind closed doors, the Platt marriage is going through a rough patch. She spends nights in the basement, where she writes a fiction that resembles, suspiciously, the reality she lives and in which the protagonist dreams of leaving her family and moving to New York. He cannot share with the woman with whom he has two children his new work reality, while he is drowning his sorrows by hiding whiskey bottles in strategic spots around the house.
The night after the party, a light and a strange tremor end up gathering the Platts on the landing of their home. The telephone line is cut, flashlights must be found and the unsettling calm that permeates the streets leads them to sleep all together in the living room. In the morning, when Denise and Greg leave the family home to look for the family dog and check on their neighbors, they come face to face with reality. The suburb has filled with dinosaurs and their idyllic existence is now in danger.
Original Action with Feelings
In the midst of their frenetic fight for survival, working to turn their house into a bunker while coming to terms with what they have lost and trying not to lose their cool, the Platts have a moment to sit down and search for meaning in what has happened. There enters Audrey’s passion for science, who, without being a pedantic child, is capable of explaining to her father, the one who only goes to Mass at Christmas but now puts himself in God’s hands, what a black hole is and what might have happened to their suburb. A particularly endearing moment for fans of Interstellar and Hathaway’s role in Nolan’s film.
Anne Hathaway en modo heroína familiar, el personaje que estábamos deseando que interpretaste, en El final de Oak Street.
In just over an hour and a half, The End of Oak Street is able to offer viewers an exciting narrative in which the action is provided by the dinosaurs but where feelings and moments for reflection are not missing. The Platts know that together they are stronger and that only true unity will allow them to survive in such an unknown and dangerous environment. And while the extinct beasts lead them to live unimaginable moments just days ago, Denise and Greg are capable of relativizing their feelings and the dimension of their marriage crisis.
Vibrant, tender and capable of keeping the viewer glued to the screen throughout the runtime, The End of Oak Street is proof that another cinema is possible. The one in which imagination and emotions go hand in hand to create interesting characters, especially the female ones, and propose an engaging story that respects the audience, amuses them and makes them leave the cinema with the satisfaction of having seen a story as original as it is enjoyable. If, in addition, the story holds a special place for a woman of letters, the joy is already unbeatable.
