Remarkably Bright Creatures 2026 Movie Review
Full disclosure: I’ll watch just about anything Sally Field does and after this film, I’m crushing on Lewis Pullman the way I did his father back when “Spaceballs” first debuted in the ’80’s (I was VERY young). I’ll even confess I’m endlessly fascinated by octopi (yes, it IS an accepted plurality). All of these could very well have contributed to my love for this film, but I’m fairly certain most people with heartstrings that haven’t frayed entirely over the last decade will also enjoy it.
There are many reasons to recommend the film in addition to the above. The Pacific Northwestern setting is breathtaking and the supporting cast brilliantly fun. But at its heart, it’s Sally Field and Lewis Pullman that will make this one a modern classic.
Field plays an older widow who’s never gotten over her son’s disappearance and assumed death. She appreciates her solitude in both home AND work, where she cleans after-hours at an aquarium. It’s here she develops a bond with a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, who serves as something of a narrator throughout the film, watching her and the other humans like the unruly third-graders who lick the walls of his tank and leave gum on the floor. Alfred Molina gives Marcellus his voice (an interesting tidbit that I don’t think counts as a spoiler: Whereas most of us likely assumed the film’s title refers to the octopus, the opposite is the case).
Lewis Pullman is a young man lost in life and looking for the father he’s never met. Though the little town the story takes place in was only meant to be a brief stopover after having some radiator troubles, he ends up taking Field’s job at the aquarium while she recuperates from a fall. As anybody could predict, they find what they needed in each other.
Though my first impression seeing the revelation at the end of the film was admittedly eye-rolling, the charm won me over. It’s one tiny flaw in a truly beautiful film that makes you ponder life’s little synchronicities and how much precious time can be wasted if one allows a tragedy or the hand they’ve been dealt to consume them. This was a lesson I desperately needed to hear last night when watching it. That it came with a complimentary movie as moving as “Remarkably Bright Creatures” was priceless.
