‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ Review: Their Octopus Teacher

in “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” Sally Field summons her prowess as a two-time Oscar winner to ship a tearful monologue to a mop bucket. True, particular results have put an octopus in that bucket, however picturing Field’s expertise on the set is much more enjoyable.

That the actress can wring even a touch of emotion from that scene is without doubt one of the few factors of curiosity on this bland and sluggish function, through which an aquarium cleansing lady (Field) and a washed-up guitarist (Lewis Pullman) emerge from their respective depths of grief with prodding from Marcellus, a cephalopod voiced by Alfred Molina, who sounds distractingly like Alec Baldwin.

Based on Shelby Van Pelt’s surprise-hit noveland directed by Olivia Newman (“When the Crawdads Sing”), “Remarkably Bright Creatures” stays on a easy conceit. Marcellus lives in a fish tank; the cleansing lady, Tova, lives in a small city in Washington that’s, Marcellus explains in voice-over, type of like a fish tank: Tova, nonetheless bereft over shedding her husband and son years earlier, cannot escape the gaze of gossiping neighbors. Still, any film that takes veteran scene-stealers like Joan Chen, Beth Grant and Kathy Baker and reduces them to clucking caricatures — they play Tova’s knitting circle — would not actually appear focused on human beings.

Tova will get a treatment for her loneliness when Cameron, the guitarist, arrives on the town and takes a short lived job on the aquarium. Cameron is in search of the daddy he by no means knew; in Tova, he finds somebody who can get his life on observe (and set him up on a date with a neighborhood paddleboarder, performed by Sofia Black-D’Elia). Then there’s that growing older octopus, whose final act on Earth might be “to help the cleaning lady and the juvenile.” How good of him. And whereas being cynical a couple of wise-octopus film might be unfair, being bored by it is not nice, both.

Remarkably Bright Creatures
Rated PG-13 for discussions of dying, loneliness and aquatic captivity. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Watch on Netflix.