Films on relationships, one remarkable and one nightmarish
“Remarkably Brilliant Creatures”
Based on the bestselling 2022 novel by Shelby Van Pelt and directed by Olivia Newman (“Where the Crawdads Sing”), “Remarkably Bright Creatures” channels Nicholas Sparks by way of centenarian wildlife expert David Attenborough. If that sounds like a lot of tentacles, it should, as the film is narrated by an aging giant octopi named Marcellus. Marcellus lives in an aquarium on the Puget Sound and likes to get out and scamper about at night, which brings him into contact with Tova (Sally Field), a retiree who works the late-night janitorial shift, both to keep busy and to help settle past traumas. One affectionate tentacle touch and Marcellus can tell that there is a “hole” in Tova’s heart. Things get more complicated when Lewis Pullman’s Cameron, a broke struggling musician, takes over Tova’s shift after she twists an ankle. The Sparks-ian angle — human trauma distilled into an airy lite confection — has all three finding closure on that past and healing in the now, through interaction with each other. For the audience, there’s an unsolved mystery to add intrigue.
Marcellus, voiced by Alfred Molina, gives us all the Attenborough octopi factoids we need, and while the film is best when Marcellus is at the center (the FX and such are excellent), Field and her gaggle of aging gal pals — the “knit-wits,” a sewing club with Joan Chen, Beth Grant and Kathy Baker — charm in devilishly understated ways. It’s heartwarming for sure, but never maudlin. Field, a veteran presence, carries the film and knows when to cede the stage to her eight-armed co-star.
Watching “Creatures” sparked the desire in me to go back and watch the Academy Award-winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher” (2020), which plays like “Creatures” IRL. It also has me wanting to reread Sy Montgomery’s excellent and emotionally insightful “The Soul of an Octopus,” which, like Tova, is about the author’s interaction with a polypous named Athena at our beloved New England Aquarium.
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