Life Itself Review: 2 Ups & 8 Downs

6. Fogelman's Direction

For as much as I'm bashing him here, it is important to note; Dan Fogelman is a talented artist. As a writer, he's been a part of crafting some of the more beloved films of the last decade. He wrote the screenplay for Disney's Tangled (which remains one of Disney's strongest recent films and is better than Frozen in every way) as well as the script for Crazy, Stupid, Love (one of the best romantic comedies of the last twenty years).

But a director, he isn't quite there. His only previous directorial credit prior to this film was Danny Collins, an Al Pacino-starring dramedy that earned middling acclaim thanks to the performances. But here, Fogelman's direction is exceedingly limited and feels as if it is constantly working against itself.

The muted colors, the constant shake of the hand-held camera, the often too-close framing that literally cuts into the performances, the (frankly) uninteresting cinematography. Nothing about the film feels cinematic in the least, made all the more noticeable by how often Fogelman and cinematographer Brett Pawlak swing for the fences and absolutely whiff.

They continuously attempt to create grand visuals to compliment their globe-spanning story of love and loss and it is never anything short of laughable. On This Is Us, Fogelman regularly relies on talented directors such as George Tillman Jr. and Regina King to bring his vision to life. And here without them, his complete misunderstanding of cinematic language is on full display.