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. There is a way this movie starts with a cautious Alithea (Tilda Swinton) as she goes about her lonely way then coming into the possession of a Djinn (Idris Elba) with three wishes she can use. This start and her willingness not to be a sucker had me, I wanted so much to see how this was going to end.

Then the movie lost me the moment she wished for… not to spoil the movie she made a wish for something that was clearly missing in her life, and I was not surprised, and the movie then ended woefully.

I was really hoping she will be cautious all through and just do some living, but I guess the movie is more about the three stories the Djinn had to tell than anything else. Is why I can understand how this was not a massive hit. Then the way she just succumbed to the weird wish of hers just showed for me some form of lack of imagination.

The movie is based on a book called The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye a short story from 1994 by British novelist A. S. Byatt. I have not read that book, so I can not say if this movie is true to the material or not.

I like the movie’s three stories to be honest and that was it for me. The plot is simple Alithea loves to travel to narrate stories and her life has been one of being alone. She used to be married, but one thing caused that marriage to fail the movie showed glimpse of what that could be but did not dwell on it. In one of her trips, she purchases a nice bottle which had some burnt stains on it.

She takes it to her hotel and while cleaning it releases a Djinn who then grants her three wishes.

We learn that the Djinn was trapped in the whole granting three wishes thing by King Solomon (of the Bible) and the only way he can be free is if he can get someone to make three wishes.

So, he tells his story of the places he has been since being a trapped in this wishing thing and how come the three wishes never come to be completed so he can be free of the bondage in which he finds himself.

In the end, I admire the ambition of the movie in wanting to capture the marvel of the days of Solomon and the times after that until this present day, but in the end that is all I get. Fine visuals and that’s it.