Get those tissues ready because Oscar Isaac’s new film looks like it’ll have you ugly crying by the time the credits roll. Titled Life Itself, this is the kind of project that’s described as celebrating “the human condition and all of its complications with humor, poignancy and love.” And if that sounds right up your alley (or if you’re a big This is Us fan, as creator Dan Fogelman writes and directs), you’ll likely enjoy this bilingual multigenerational drama that also stars Antonio Banderas, Laia Costa, and Annette Bening.
Like his hit NBC show, Life Itself finds Fogelman criss-crossing several storylines that intersect with one another. There’s Isaac and Olivia Wilde playing a happy-go-lucky couple in New York City as they go from flirtation to marriage and parenthood. There’s Banderas and an entirely Spanish cast living their lives in that European country. And then there’s Homeland‘s Mandy Patinkin dealing with a precocious young girl. How and why these characters and stories will come together is no doubt one of the joys audiences can expect from this heartwarming tale.
Thankfully, the trailer doesn’t give too much away, focusing as it does on the couple at its heart, who dominate the voice-over as we hear the bittersweet lines they say to each other at crucial moments in their life together. “I’m waiting for the right moment because when I ask you out there’s not gonna be any turning back from me,” he tells her quite seriously; “I love you,” she tells him later, “but I may not be equipped to be loved this much.” In between, with images that echo not just This is Us but Parenthood and ensemble films like Love, Actually, we see moments of joy and of despair, happy couples in Spanish fountains, soon-to-be-parents laughing their mornings away, crying little girls and would-be car accidents in New York.
Scored by Roo Panes’ soothing folksy “Little Giants” song, it’s the kind of fragmented trailer that does more to capture the earnestness of the film rather than offer key plot points. But if you’ve ever wanted to see Isaac in full John Travolta in Pulp Fiction mode, or see just how good Banderas looks with a salt-and-pepper beard with wine in hand, then click away and catch the full trailer below.
Life Itself opens September 21, 2018