Three Thousand Years Of Longing is the highly anticipated follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road from director, George Miller, who co-wrote the the film with Augusta Gore, adapting the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A. S. Byatt. It follows a lonely but content narratologist, Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), who goes to Istanbul for a conference about the nature of mythology. While there, she buys a trinket from a market, that – upon trying to give it a clean back in the hotel room – reveals to hold a Djinn (Idris Elba), who proceeds to ask her three wishes that he can grant.
But it’s not so simple with Alithea. As a narratologist, someone who studies all the elements of storytelling and how they affect us, she finds it hard to believe anything good can come out of this. After all, every story about wishes being granted have been a cautionary tale, such as the classic monkey’s paw trope. In order to convince her to take this opportunity and fulfill her heat’s desire, he tells her stories from his life, spanning thousands of years, mixing in figures from history and legend. A bond soon forms between the two, connected by their shared solitude.
There many words you can use to describe Three Thousand Years Of Long (which I’ll refer to as TTYOL for the rest of the review), but one thing you can’t say is that it lacks ambition. While the setup is a fairly basic two-hander between Alithea and the Djinn, with most of it spent in a hotel room, Miller’s theatrical and maximalist tendencies cannot be contained like the Djinn in his bottles. TTYOL is a wild, colorful, and bold film. Beautifully crafted from start to finish, with most of the folks involved being carryovers from the Fury Road crew, John Seale as the cinematographer, Margaret Sixel as the editor, Tom Holkenborg as the composer. But I also must note the sumptuous work from costume designer, Kym Barrett, and production designer, Roger Ford, who really bring these sequences to life.
This has been a project in Miller’s mind since the 90s, but it’s also the kind of film that could only come from someone who is a seasoned craftsman, someone who has been around, built up the wisdom from years of experience, since that alone really sells a lot of the thematic underpinnings. It’s a story about storytelling, about the way it makes us feel, how they change us, how they can bring meaning to our lives or make sense out of the things that we experience in the chaos of existence. As simple as the setup and overall plot beats are, it’s a dense film littered with nods and references, and layers within the stories being told. It’s astonishing to watch it unfold.
However, as much as I would love to simply sing the film’s praises, there are things worth looking at more critically. For one, while racial dynamics are not brought up at any point in the film (except for an abrupt racist tirade from Alithea’s unpleasant neighbor), it is still hard to not see the film as an extension of the “magical negro” trope, where a Black character with great insight or literal powers is only used as a way to further the arc of a white protagonist. And considering where the film ends up, as much as there is a lot that I liked about it, the thought of this trope kept ringing in the back of my head. That’s not something I feel fully equipped to discuss, so I encourage you to look more into that from Black critics.
And while it remained entertaining for me, the nature of the structure did feel disjointed at times, with a bulk of the stories being in the first two thirds, and the final act leisurely making its way to the finish line. It’s not as relentlessly paced like Fury Road, that much should be clear for anyone coming in. While the film doesn’t even clock in at two hours, it does feel it at times. It’s also a film that doesn’t always make its answers clear, bringing up numerous philosophical concepts, but not necessarily giving them a clear thematic payoff, which I can see some finding frustrating, though I found it to be more as a way to further engage with the ideas. And one final critique, as much as I think Elba and Swinton both do a tremendous job individually, their chemistry did feel lacking at times.
When it comes to taking big swings, George Miller is still one of the most fearless filmmakers out there. And like with any film that takes major swings, there’s bound to be some stumbles and flaws. Thankfully, I don’t consider any of the flaws in Three Thousand Years Of Longing to be a deal breaker. I found the film to be a rewarding and thoughtful and melancholic affair that encourages us to look deeper, deeper within the stories we tell, the stories we experience, and how we can use those to connect with one another. It’s a bit of cheesy sentiment, but I adore the sincerity of it so much. I really resonated with a lot of the ideas the film was throwing at me, and on top of that, I was consistently astonished by the work put into the filmmaking. Miller commits to some wild imagery and conceits, and you can practically see him giddy behind the camera, hoping he can catch you off-guard by whatever he has planned next. Even at 77, there’s still no one quite like him, and I hope he can keep making movies for as long as he can.
Three Thousand Years Of Longing is now out in theaters.