Life Itself Review: 2 Ups & 8 Downs

5. The Unreliable Narrator

A huge part of this film's entire narrative is centered around Abby's college thesis paper, which centered around the trope of the unreliable narrator.

In an effort to tie this in thematically, Fogelman's makes sure that the entire film is heavily narrated. And while his intent is blindingly obvious, the use of this is to the film's own detriment. The first rule of storytelling is to show not tell, and Life Itself spends all one-hundred-and-seventeen-minutes of its runtime (don't be fooled, it feels like an eternity) telling us everything and showing us practically nothing.

In Will's introductory sequence, he walks into a coffee shop and proceeds to disrupt the entire setting. He drunkenly and haphazardly sings to himself, clearly in the midst of some sort of emotional breakdown. But we as an audience never get to experience any of this for ourselves. Instead, Fogelman layers the scene with narration telling us about how troubled Will is and why he's distraught. To top it off, the narration literally begins with;

"Will was troubled. But you probably don't need me to tell you that."

The entire film proceeds this way, with Fogelman preferring to shove exposition down our throats rather than leaving even an ounce of nuance to any scene.