Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

 Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

 

5/10

Starring

Idris Elba

Tilda Swinton

 

Directed by George Miller

 

This romantic fantasy may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The movie starts with a cautious Alithea (Tilda Swinton) going about her lonely life before coming into possession of a Djinn (Idris Elba), who offers her three wishes. Her initial hesitation and determination not to be a sucker drew me in—I was eager to see how it would all end.

But the movie lost me the moment she made her first wish. Without spoiling anything, she wished for something that was clearly missing in her life, which wasn’t surprising. Unfortunately, from there, the movie ended in a way that felt woefully disappointing.

I had hoped she would remain cautious throughout and take a more creative approach to her wishes. Instead, the movie seemed more focused on the Djinn’s three stories than on her journey. While the stories themselves were engaging, the lack of imagination in her wishes left me feeling underwhelmed. It’s probably why the movie wasn’t a massive hit. Her quick submission to the strange wish also felt like a missed opportunity for more depth.

The movie is based on a short story called The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by British novelist A. S. Byatt, published in 1994. I haven’t read the story, so I can’t say whether the movie stayed true to its source material or not.

To be fair, I enjoyed the Djinn’s three stories—that was the highlight for me. The plot itself is simple: Alithea loves to travel and narrate stories, living a mostly solitary life. She was once married, but the marriage ended, and the movie gives us glimpses of what may have caused it without diving too deeply.

On one of her trips, she purchases a peculiar bottle with burnt stains on it. Later, in her hotel room, she cleans the bottle and accidentally releases the Djinn, who offers her three wishes.

The Djinn explains that he’s been trapped in this wish-granting cycle ever since King Solomon (yes, the biblical one) imprisoned him. His only path to freedom is for someone to make three complete wishes. To persuade her, he shares stories of the times and places he’s lived through since his imprisonment, as well as why none of his previous masters ever finished their wishes.

In the end, I admired the movie’s ambition to capture the wonder of Solomon’s time and the eras that followed, but that’s all it really offered me. The visuals were stunning, but beyond that, it didn’t leave much of an impression.