Three Thousand Years of Longing; Grade: B-
Three Thousand Years of Longing tells a story about a scholar named Alithea (Tilda Swinton) whom is venturing out in Istanbul giving out a lecture based around storytelling. Alithea has been experiencing a couple imaginary people, as one of them alarmed Alithea deeply to the point where she passed out in the middle of a lecture. Alithea buys a random lovely bottle like vase at a market, as when she gets back in her hotel room cleaning it off… POOF a genie like figure that goes by Djinn (Idris Elba) pops up out of nowhere. Djinn offers to grant Alithea three wishes, however Alithea is a strong independent woman who doesn’t have any desires as she feels completely content with her life. Djinn will tell some tales about his experience from others in his past, which Djinn hopes will inspire Alithea to come up with some ideas for a wish as if she doesn’t… Djinn will be in a very unfortunate place at hand.
Heard early on in the summer time that George Miller had a new film coming out, as I was looking forward to it considering I LOVED his last film Mad Max: Fury Road. The poster design looked absolutely gorgeous, as it brings out a great amount of curiosity towards your mindset. Three Thousand Years of Longing may not deliver an exciting experience like Mad Max: Fury Road did, however I actually adore this fairly matured adult fairytale spectacle.
The story at hand feels like a traditional genie in a bottle type tale, however it’s approached much differently. Even though the Djinn has an incredible ability to grant wishes, those wishes do not guarantee a secure life altering effect as reality is still in play and those wishes could become extremely costly. I thought the whole realistic approach was satisfying, especially when it comes to play in the first tale dealing with a slave girl whom has a massive crush on a prince tale.
I feel all three tales in which Djinn tells were all fairly intriguing, I felt the first and third tale was equally the best as it not only showed the realistic side of Djinn’s power, but also showcase the character of Djinn within himself. The second tale at hand… The way it’s constructed can be hard to follow in terms of accomplishing a point at times.
I felt the meat of this story has to mainly follow with love, as how we all desire to be loved, as sometimes when we’re unsuccessful with receiving love… We tend to distract ourselves to not experience that yearning feeling. You take a character like Alithea: Other than one past lover, she has occupy herself with stories to distract her from feeling pure loneliness that she has no one to love. Same thing with Djinn: He has loved a woman in the past, but unfortunately things did not go so well so Djinn is more focused on hoping to grant all three wishes to anyone whom seeks him, just so he can be freed.
Surely every single living being desires to be loved, but because of past failures in the relationship department… We tend to hold ourselves to a high degree of stubbornness, to constantly distract ourselves so we can refuse to admit that we don’t desire to be love when in reality that’s what we desire the most out of life itself. It’s a fairly straightforward and relatable to most adults, who feel their time is up when it comes to the love department so they constantly continue to avoid or pay no mind to the most desired request yet.
I felt the final like twenty minutes is a bit messy at certain points. Surely it has a very satisfying heart warming conclusion, however it can be difficult to comprehend, especially the type of reaction Djinn is experiencing in some form of landscape or how he’s seen amongst other people other than Alithea.
Three Thousand Years of Longing is by no means a masterpiece, however I felt it’s a fairly matured adult fantasy film that really will open the mind and hearts of many adults, as it’ll get them back on the saddle to find exactly what they’ve been wanting in their lives.
Overall, Three Thousand Years of Longing is a fairly decent film. I recommend checking this one out, won’t say this is for everyone as some of the visuals can be a bit… Weird. -Mitch Smietana