'Here' review: 'Forrest Gump' reunion delivers uneven heart-warmer

"To seize and put into words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single nation, appears impossible," wrote no less a thinker than Leo Tolstoy in "War and Peace." Tolstoy nevertheless tried, spending about 700,000 words to describe just 15 years’ worth of events. Director Robert Zemeckis makes his own attempt at a sweeping history in "Here," covering more than two centuries of American life — actually, more like 65 million years — in a two-hour movie that takes place almost entirely in a single room.

It's a neat trick from a filmmaker who loves neat tricks. And here’s another: "Here" reunites Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, from Zemeckis’ other pop-historical epic, "Forrest Gump," the six-time Oscar winner from 1994. They play Richard and Margaret, who — thanks to some impressive de-aging techniques — meet as teenagers in the early 1960s and then grow old together. While "Here" takes us as far back as the Mesozoic era (yes, really) and into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the two Boomers who anchor the film.

Given its limitations — the camera stays put while characters enter and exit the living room of an old Colonial — "Here" manages to hold our attention. Little boxes appear on screen, directing our eyes to a new bit of action. Al (Paul Bettany), a World War II veteran, returns home from work; Rose (Kelly Reilly), his wife, tells him to watch his drinking. We might drift back to the 1920s, when Leo Beekman (David Fynn) invents a mechanized recliner ("The Relaxy-Boy!" he proclaims), or even further back to the early 1900s, when John and Pauline Harter (Gwilyim Lee and Michelle Dockery) bicker over his dangerous new hobby, aviation.

There’s filler aplenty here, including a brief glimpse of Benjamin Franklin and a romance between two Native Americans. There’s also a well-intentioned, if somewhat reductive, depiction of a Black couple (Nicholas Pinnock and Nikki Amuka-Bird) telling their son (Cache Vanderpuye) how to behave if pulled over by a cop. But Zemeckis and his "Gump" co-writer, Eric Roth (working from Richard McGuire’s graphic novel), are clearly focused on Richard and Margaret. Their historical markers — the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," for instance — take pride of place.

"Here" is more of a conceit than a story, though some of the life events — birth, death, marriage, divorce — can be moving. There are also times when the stagy setting seeps into the acting; Bettany, for instance, seems to be playing Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman." Still, Zemeckis deserves credit for trying to wrap his arms around some very large themes — the misty past, the unpredictable present and that slightly spooky feeling of just being alive.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman