‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’: New film has a talking octopus and a lot of heart

The film ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ is the story of a widow who works at a local aquarium and finds joy again when she forms unlikely bonds with a giant Pacific octopus and a wayward young man who comes to town in search of family. Together, they uncover a mystery that will lead them to a life-changing discovery and restore their sense of wonder. 

TARA BENNETT: Not every bestselling novel should be made into a movie, because what works on the page doesn’t always translate to the screen. Take Shelby Van Pelt’s 2022 novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, which inherently has a high degree of page-to-screen difficulty simply because a primary point-of-view character is an acerbic, wordy, giant Pacific octopus. You screw up that cephalopod and your movie is dead in the water. This makes it extra impressive that director Olivia Newman’s Netflix adaptation of Remarkably Bright Creatures is a heartfelt character piece, featuring a cast that elevates the material and keeps the book’s potentially maudlin tentacles in check.

The adaptation doesn’t divert much from Van Pelt’s prose, which centers on 70-year-old widow Tova Sullivan (Sally Field). She lives alone in her large family home in the Pacific Northwest, and works the night shift cleaning the tiny local aquarium. Tova clearly prefers the quiet company of talking to her fishy friends, especially Marcellus, the aforementioned rescued octopus, who observes her from his tank. In turn, he shares with the audience, through the omniscient voice of Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus himself), his imperious thoughts about the strange humans who tap at his glass and exhibit their myriad odd habits.

A narrating octopus, you say? It’s been scientifically proven that octopuses are one of the most intelligent invertebrates, and they practice observational learning. SOURCE

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