It is quite impressive how diversifying director Marc Forster’s filmography has become. Forster is perhaps best known for his work directing Halle Berry’s Oscar-winning performance in Monster’s Ball, James Bond sequel, Quantum of Solace in the Daniel Craig era, zombie flick World War Z, and a story about Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin. Needless to say, each of his films have their own signature stamp that it would be quite difficult to tell the director’s films apart. Even with a cliché trailer like what this movie chose, I knew that I would be seeing the director continue this trend, which I have to say, he continues to do quite well.

I have never seen the original. Not that I have anything against watching it – I’d still love to see it, especially after seeing this version. I unfortunately never got the opportunity to see this in theaters, even when I had a ticket for the theater on several occasions. I had a better sense of what I was getting myself into when I saw some clips appear on Tik Tok. I was quite impressed with how well received the clips were amongst the viewers and were leaving a lasting impression. After finally getting the chance to see this, I can imagine this movie slowly getting more and more well-deserved attention.

What the movie manages to achieve the most here is tackling mental health in a way that makes sense and can certainly connect with most viewers. There are certain moments that I think shocked me with how well depicted they were and other moments that had me on the verge of tears. Tom Hanks gives another career-defining performance through it all. I can see why this movie was released when it was – in the hopes to get some Oscar attention. This also leads to the movie’s downfall.

The movie is more or less of the same tone that the trailer provides. While cliché, it also has a tough time being original through some of the other characters. I think when a movie like this tries to mimic the magic of other movies before, it’s going to become more and more difficult for it to stand out to more original content that is getting nominated. The cinematography and effects were also an odd choice as not everything looks as real as it does. For example, there are scenes that requires Tom Hanks to interact with others, but when the camera focuses on the supporting characters without Hanks, it never looks like they are really interacting with each other. For the effects, another example would be how a train really doesn’t look like a train.

Overall, the movie manages to make a point for its existence through tackling real mental health problems, outweighing its technical flaws.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty good)