Life Itself Review: 2 Ups & 8 Downs

3. It's Smug Self-Satisfaction With Every Reveal

J. J. Abrams often receives criticism for his use of the 'mystery box' storytelling structure, thanks to a perhaps-too-open TED talk a few years back in which he revealed his writing methods.

Anyone who has ever complained about Abrams' use of this technique should be physically forced to sit down and endure Life Itself and then write an extended retraction because Fogelman takes this structure to absurdly terrible new heights.

Everything in this film is treated as a reveal. Even things that are common knowledge to the characters in the film are treated as big reveals to the audience. Something as simple as the fact that Abby is pregnant in the initial flashback of her and Will in bed is treated as a big twist, with both of them jokingly gasping and saying things like, "You're pregnant?". It is brushed off as being played for cheap laughs but in reality, it's just more of Fogelman's insufferable writing smugly patting itself on the back.

Later, when Abby's unreliable narrator thesis is introduced into the story, the film acts as if the audience should be in absolute awe of this concept, as Will reflects on his previously-shown memories in a different light. But as the film itself states, the unreliable narrator is a trope. It's a cliche so heavily overused that Fogelman treating this as some shocking reveal comes off as parody.