Review: Three Thousand Years of Longing

Directed by: George Miller

Written by: George Miller & Augusta Gore

Starring: Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Aska Karem,, Erdil Yaşaroğlu, Sarah Houbolt 

Rating: [3/5]

Getting the opportunity to have three wishes from a genie serves as the source of many fun hypotheticals getting at the deepest desires of a person. However, we can all understand the impossible likelihood of actually coming across a genie who can make this hypothetical a reality. Well, leave it to good old movie magic and fictional storytelling to present one of the more grounded editions of a genie in a bottle that works but also does not. 

In Istanbul for a work trip, Alithea (Tilda Swinton) purchases an antique bottle that unknowingly contained a Djinn (Idris Elba). Now released and offering her three wishes, Alithea refuses to play along with this game and opts to learn more about this Djinn and how he has found himself in this situation. 

After delivering something as exhilarating and seismic as Mad Max: Fury Road, many waited with bated breath on what legendary filmmaker, George Miller, would do next. Of all the stories he could take on, it did come as a bit of a surprise that he opted to tell a story mostly about a woman and a genie engaging in dialogue inside a hotel room. Far from barrelling through the desert and mass violence from rigs and war boys on display, we get something quite different here in Three Thousand Years of Longing for better and for worse.

Very hesitant to play along in this game with the Djinn, Alithea navigates this circumstance differently than I would but she does present some sound logic. She has valid reasoning as to why she should not fully trust how her wishes could be interpreted and the impact it would have on others. You could ask for millions of dollars, but as a result, that money could come from those who need it. Alithea certainly takes a staunch approach, which leads her to learning more about this spirit and the stories he tells that draw out the larger lessons this narrative seeks to tell. 

With each story the Djinn shares, not only do we escape this hotel room, but we also learn about the tragic circumstances he has found himself in with the individuals who he could grant wishes for. If anything, it further displays Alithea had great reasoning in having an initial distrust for this seemingly once-in-a-century opportunity. From the story of the Queen of Sheba (Aamito Lagum) to the wish grantees of Gülten (Ece Yüksel) and Zefir (Burcu Gölgedar) we learn how each of these individuals received the wishes they sought and yet it ends in tragedy for them. Djinn had to suffer through it all with his invulnerability, which would certainly take its toll on just about anyone. 

When engaging with these stories, the film takes us into different periods of history in an engaging manner and while these segments work in isolation, the sum of its parts does not fully stick the landing in delivering one cohesive fully-realized film. When you look at it from afar, the story ultimately feels like one giant exposition dump featuring some nice scenes delivering the illustrations for them. A perfect amalgamation of the whole being less than the sum of its parts. However, those parts are individually quite entertaining and enjoyable, which ultimately leads me to land positively overall on this film. It also helps when you have Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton leading your film that help elevate even the most mediocre elements to more than watchable. Elba, in particular, as Djinn shined as he had much more to do in the various stories. 

If anything, throughout his career, George Miller has demonstrated how he can jump around genre and types of stories. Nothing crystallizes it more than the fact the same man who famously crafted the Mad Max films also directed Happy Feet. Therefore, one cannot be too surprised that sandwiched between two Mad Max films he would make something like Three Thousand Years of Longing. He definitely takes some swings in this story where I could appreciate all of the short stories embedded into this ponderous dialogue held by Alithea and Djinn. It just unfortunately does not tie it all together that would have elevated this film far to a different stratosphere.