Three Thousand Years of Longing
2022
**½
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba, Aamito Lagum, Sabrina Dhowre, Nicolas Mouawad, Ece Yüksel, Matteo Bocelli, Lachy Hulme, Megan Gale, Burcu Gölgedar
Alithea, a middle-aged scholar on a work trip to Istanbul, unleashes the Djinn trapped inside an antique bottle. While Alithea contemplates her three wishes, the Djinn describes his 3,000-year history through three separate stories. George Miller's romantic grown-up fantasy is based on A. S. Byatt's 1994 short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. This is a silly and baffling film, and I'm not sure what to make of it. It's all about storytelling, but the three One Thousand and One Night stories are forgettable and drenched in second rate digital effects. As the Djinn recounts his past, Swinton and Elba spend half of the runtime in a hotel room dressed in bathrobes. There was to be no Academy Award for best costume design.
