Life Itself Review: 2 Ups & 8 Downs

1. The Incredibly Game Cast

Despite the atrocious material they are saddled with, Fogelman has assembled an all-star cast here and gosh-darn-it they are just trying so hard to make this thing not seem like the most ridiculous thing in the world. Nowhere is it more apparent that Fogelman and the studio were aiming for Academy Awards glory with this film than in just how seriously everyone takes their performances.

Oscar Issac may be bogged down by ludicrous dialogue (like suggesting he and Abby turn off Bob Dylan to listen to Thirty Seconds to Mars or Smash Mouth instead) and nonsensical character turns (read: everything above) but he is fully committed to the bit.

Similarly, Antonio Banderas may be playing an atrociously awful on-the-nose representation of Fogelman's own storytelling sensibilities, but its also the most invested performance audiences have seen out of him in nearly a decade.

And boy, does this film assemble an incredible group of actresses and give them nothing to do. But Annette Benning, Olivia Wilde, and especially Olivia Cooke all do their absolute best with the paper-thin characters they're given.

So while the performances aren't good, the cast does their best to play it as straight as they can and with a script like this, that alone is worthy of praise.