Tom Hanks' 'Here' Scores Low 29% Rotten Tomatoes Score Ahead of Premiere

It took 30 years for the onscreen reunion of Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and director Robert Zemeckis to happen, but according to critics, their team-up was not worth the wait. Here — the drama that chronicles the life of different generations and people who live in the same house at different times — debuted with an incredibly low Rotten Tomatoesapproval rate of 29%. The score might suggest that the hyped up movie might end up not resonating with audiences despite Hanks' massive popularity around the world.

One element that might draw audiences to theaters is the structure of Here: Told entirely from the same POV, the movie is being advertised as a "cinematic journey" that tells the story of the same spot. This means that the story goes as far back as the dinosaur era to show what the spot was like millions of years before the house that Hanks and Wright's character inhabit was built. The movie also covers the life of other people and animals that lived in that particular spot, and takes the story well into the future.

So far, critics have been going hard at Here, with Daily Beast's Nick Schager calling the movie "embarrassing." However, he wrote that the movie's never-moving camera turns out as a "handsomely constructed affair." The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney called the story of Here "banal," "weightless" and wrote that "everything feels lifted from the most routine playbook of aging, declining health, birth, death, divorce and, most insistently, deferred dreams."

Here Goes Hard On VFX

Image via Sony

Here also has a distinct element that might make audiences curious to check out: It stars younger versions of Hanks and Wright through the use of digital de-aging and motion capture: a technique that Zemeckis became famous for using in The Polar Express. So the movie shows the couple at several different ages, and the same might happen with other cast members, which include Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Paul Bettany (WandaVision), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone), Gwilym Lee (Oddity), Ophelia Lovibond (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Jonathan Aris (Good Omens).

The movie is written by Eric Roth (Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune), who adapted the story from the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Zemeckis co-wrote the script with Roth. The early reviews are coming from critics that had the chance to watch the movie at this year's AFI Fest, and if Sony manages to make audiences engage with the story, chances are that the movie ends up scoring acting and visual effects nominations during the Awards season in 2025.

Here is set to premiere in theaters on November 1. You can check out the trailer below:

Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, Here is an ambitious and innovative film that explores the lives of multiple families over generations, centered around a single location in New England. The film highlights themes of love, loss, and legacy as it spans centuries, capturing the essence of the human experience. 

Runtime 104 Minutes

Main Genre Drama

Distributor(s) TriStar Pictures