{"id":419,"date":"2026-05-10T17:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:34:17","slug":"movie-review-sally-field-lewis-pullman-and-an-octopus-in-remarkably-bright-creatures-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman and an octopus in \u2018Remarkably Bright Creatures\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was only a matter of time before \u201cthat octopus book\u201d became \u201cthat octopus movie\u201d (or, at least, \u201cthat other octopus movie\u201d ). Shelby Van Pelt\u2019s \u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures\u201d was a kind of slow-burn, word-of-mouth literary sensation in the years since it was first published in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>With its octopus narrator, sentimental story and quirky array of small-town characters, it was tailor made for adaptation. The result, streaming Friday on Netflix, is respectable and heartfelt, a very straightforward page to screen interpretation that gets the job done and the tears flowing thanks to strong performances by Sally Field and Lewis Pullman. Their characters, Tova, a 70-year-old widow, and Cameron, a 30-something searching for his father, become unlikely friends thanks, in part to a cranky and wise octopus named Marcellus (Alfred Molina) who lives in the aquarium where Tova cleans at night. Don\u2019t worry, the octopus doesn\u2019t talk to them, just us.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s certainly a bit whimsical and stop-and-go considering how much of the story takes place outside of the aquarium, but it mostly stays on the right side of cloying never veering into treacly \u201cThe Life of Chuck\u201d territory. And it is all building to something, though it takes a bit of time to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Field\u2019s Tova is a prickly sort. On a scale of one to Pansy in \u201cHard Truths,\u201d she\u2019s probably at a two. But she prefers to keep to herself. Her husband has died, they lost their son years ago \u2014 a mystery that haunts and torments her daily \u2014 and now she\u2019s left wondering how the final part of her own life is going to play out, whether that\u2019s staying in her beautiful home with all its difficult memories or moving to a retirement home.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Tova lives in a small idyllic town in the Pacific Northwest, where everyone seems to know everyone\u2019s business. It\u2019s mostly harmless (and sometimes even downright charming when it\u2019s a happy-go-lucky ex-Deadhead shopkeeper played by Colm Meaney), but she was long ago hurt by the whispering types and now won\u2019t even confide in her friends (Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, all nice to see but a little cliche and underused). Instead, she just talks to the octopus while she cleans.<\/p>\n<p>When she is injured, her boss hires someone to fill in: Pullman\u2019s Cameron, the stranger who has come to town looking for his father, who he\u2019s never met. His mother, who also left him when he was younger, has recently died and told him that his dad is a wealthy developer in the area. He\u2019s a struggling musician who\u2019s having a rough time, living in a rundown camper van and chasing after something he feels he\u2019s owed. Cameron is supposed to make everyone a little nervous, but looking like Lewis Pullman helps to make dirty, torn clothes, unwashed hair and a vagrant lifestyle seem kind of cool and intentional.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow the biggest stretch in this movie with a deus ex octopus is that Tova and Cameron would actually become friends, both filling a grief gap for one another, but it\u2019s a nice construct and Field and Pullman make it go down easier.<\/p>\n<p>The film was directed by Olivia Newman, who co-wrote the screenplay with John Whittington. Newman seems to have found a bit of niche in translating modern literature to the screen \u2014 her last movie was \u201cWhere the Crawdads Sing.\u201d \u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures\u201d is told better, and is a stronger movie even if it\u2019s not wildly visually inspired. And its impact may even sneak up on you, not even for the mechanics of the big ending which is a bit of an eyeroll, but simply watching Tova and Cameron find their own emotional catharsis. Luckily, in the comfort of your home, the tissues will be nearby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures,\u201d a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for \u201cfor thematic material, some strong language, suggestive references and brief drug use.\u201d Running time: 113 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=413\">State-level legislative effort to shrink single-family lots across Colorado fails<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=415\">Daniel Dae Kim explores booming South Korean pop, film, cosmetics and food influences for CNN series<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=417\">Tech is turning increasingly to religion in a quest to create ethical AI<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was only a matter of time before \u201cthat octopus book\u201d became \u201cthat octopus movie\u201d (or, at least, \u201cthat other octopus movie\u201d ). Shelby Van Pelt\u2019s \u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures\u201d was a kind of slow-burn, word-of-mouth literary sensation in the years since it was first published in 2022. With its octopus narrator, sentimental story and quirky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,150,1,148,440,135,139,167],"tags":[539,540,541,542,543,544],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-town-magazine","category-celebrities","category-interesting","category-magazine","category-movie-reviews","category-no-apple-publish","category-other-galley","category-sentinel-screen","tag-alfred-molina","tag-cameron","tag-marcellus","tag-netflix","tag-olivia-newman","tag-tova"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Movie Review: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman and an octopus in \u2018Remarkably Bright Creatures\u2019 - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=419\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie Review: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman and an octopus in \u2018Remarkably Bright Creatures\u2019 - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was only a matter of time before \u201cthat octopus book\u201d became \u201cthat octopus movie\u201d (or, at least, \u201cthat other octopus movie\u201d ). 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