I received a surprising number of questions about this movie, so despite the initial misgivings I voiced last month, I went ahead and gave it a watch.
My brief, spoiler free opinion? It is bland, safe, unremarkable, and hollow. Script-by-committe Hallmark Holiday stuff. There's nothing overtly wrong or upsetting about the movie, but it's the kind of holiday drek that will leave your brain the moment you stop watching it. Yes, there is a genie. Yes, she is near to the central focus. Yes, Melissa McCarthy brings some energy to the roll.
But... It feels flat and processed, like a lukewarm slice of American cheese over dry toast.
Spoiler thoughts under the cut.
Movie Stuff
The main conceit of Genie (2023) is that the movie's main protagonist, Bernard Bottle*, is working too hard. As a consequence of this, his wife and daughter leave him. We open on this premise immediately, en media res, showing Bernard working late one night at the behest of his very mean boss, and missing his daughter's birthday. When he eventually gets home, his wife has had enough, and goes to her mother's house with their daughter. She wants a separation.
The remainder of the movie involves Bernard finding a genie (Flora), and teaming up to use her magic to win back his family. The intricate blow-by-blow of the plot is insignificant - This is a Christmas movie that takes place at Christmas Time, so a happy ending is all but assured. That doesn't make the movie bad or bland in and of itself, though. The characters do that instead.
Every single character is as hollow and paper-thin as the trope they are based on. Bernard is a man who's ambitions, conflicts, and desires are unknown to us. We know he works for a Scrooge stand-in. We know he loses that job. We know he's in a desperate situation because his wife and child have left him.
This is all we know about him.
Throughout the movie there's never a moment of "I remember why I fell in love with my wife" or a reflection of why his daughter is important to him. The connection between characters is implied, rather than displayed. There is merely the idea that these are people he must win back, and nothing more. Similarly, the memebers of his family show very little depth in and of themselves. The pacing of the story's intro and the immediacy of the conflict frames Julie, Bernard's wife, as an obstacle more than anything else. She exists in the movie solely for the sake of plot-driving conflict, and rebukes any attempt at resolution. We as the audience knows nothing of her beyond this, only that she is upset and cannot be convinced that Bernard is worth working this out with. Despite the allusions to there being a long-standing history of Bernard working late and missing family events, the manner in which the characters interact - and the conflict's eventual resolution - make it seem like Bernard's singular on-screen screwup is the only thing that matters to their relationship. Bernard attempts to fix the issue over the course of the movie, and Julie is having none of it.
But when time travel is used at the end of the film to ensure Bernard doesn't miss his daughter's birthday, the totality of the conflict is resolved.
Of course there are underlying explanations - Bernard immediately quits his job after time travel, which makes Julie very happy - but emotionally the movie doesn't convey why this is so important. We saw a fraction of one day of Bernard's work, and the take away wasn't "Bernard is too invested in his job and not enough in his family" - The takeaway is that Bernard's boss is a jerk. That Bernard is only working so hard against his will. This tension might be used for effect, if there were conflict there - Is Bernard working so hard because this job is the only thing that can support his family? Is this a dilemma, choosing to support his family, vs choosing to spend time with them?
No, it turns out. Bernard is both fired, and quits, in the movie. And there appears to be zero consequence for either.** So this entire conflict is toothless. As a consequence, the lack of tension there calls the overarching conflict of the film into question. Indeed, the entire finale of the film basically shows that singular decision at the start of the film was all that mattered to the story. Bernard neither grows nor evolves. He learns that it is important to spend time with his family - which he already knew. We see him feeling conflicted and guilty about being apart from his wife and daughter from the word go.
The bottom line is that the characters in the film don't seem to exist beyond the movie's singular and seemingly confusing conflict. The fact is that the characters are shallow as a puddle, lack growth, and operate as trope-delivery mechanisms.
It's not a bad movie. But it's safe, corporate, and forgettable.
But you didn't click through this post to see my analysis of the film on it's script merits alone...
Genie Stuff
The big draw of the film is Mellisa McCarthy as the genie, Flora. How does the movie stack up, genie wise?
Kinda meh.
McCarthy brings a sepcular energy to the role, with lots of interaction, leaning into her role as a genie. She's not especially turning the dial up to 11, but there's a real attitude from her of "Hey, I'm a genie! Isn't that neat??", which I find kind of heartwarming. She's throwing around wishes, and obviously has a lot of experience doing so, not to mention a lot of enthusiasm for doing so. She doesn't come out and say she enjoys being a genie, but you get the idea she likes what she does.
That being said, the film focuses more on her being a fish out of water than anything else. She's been released after a few thousand years in her vessel, and her involvement in the movie has a lot to do with "Oh gosh, she's never seen a cell phone!!! Or panties!!!" and this is where the majority of the film's humor comes from. It's fun at first! But eventually it gets a little tiresome, and detracts from most everything else.
There is a very interesting element to Flora's character as a genie. First, she was a human being who actually undergoes a geniefication. That's awesome!! We rarely ever get to see that!! And we actually get to see it on screen rather than just being a story from long ago. Second, rather than being of Persian, Arabic, or similar origin, Flora is a genie of Scandinavian orgin or similar. From what we see in the beginning of the film, she was either a hunter or some manner of warrior, but an angry sorcerer essentially turns her into a genie for.... Some reason?
We get very little information, and barely more than a sequence of her getting sucked into her vessel, but it is there and it is new. Points to the movie for taking things in this direction, and for showing us a geniefication!
Design wise, Genie (2023) falls flat in a way that most genie based media (scarce as it is) does. Flora emerges from her vessel, does her "I'm going to make you believe I'm a genie" routine in the first five minutes of screen time, and then is coerced into wearing normal clothes and basically being a human for the rest of the film. To "blend in" you see. From that point forward she doesn't really read as a genie. She can grant wishes, of course, but it's barely more than a snap of the fingers.
On a selfish design note: The effects were meager to say the least. Some decent smoke effects in the beginning of the film, but no flourish of emergence, no genie trappings, and certainly no smoke tails. Eventually all magic becomes a snap of the fingers and sparkles. As the movie goes on, the magic is less and less impressive.
Meh.
As a further design note: Flora's genie outfit is far from what would be considered typical pop-culture genie attire. It's far more Renn Faire than Bedlah, which on its face might feel a little off the mark. But, honestly I think it works really well, and it's one point of the design I rather liked.
Her vessel, though, is a bedazzled box meant to be an "antique". I'm sorry, but the thing is hideous. No elegance, no allure of magic, no genieness. Points off for that.
One of the primary problems I had, though, with the genie side of the film is as follows: Flora is just as shallow as every other character, despite McCarthy's enthusiastic and energetic performance.
You can see she's trying to do more, but never quite gets there. There are very stilted, brief moments when Flora makes it known that she wants a friend. That she's lonely. And that she does not like being in her vessel. At one point she is in police custody and threatened with prison, to which she responds, after a heavy pause and a distant stare, "Sounds Familiar". That's about all we get exploring her feelings on the matter.
So we get the sense she's not happy being a genie. Or at least, not happy being in her vessel. But she never talks about this with anyone. She clearly wants a friend, and at the end of the movie, she mentions that Bernard is the best friend she's ever had - But they've never really talked about anything beyond A) How will Bernard get back his family, and B) Oh wow, it's 2023, isn't that crazy for Flora??? Throughout the film there really isn't a connection made there between the characters. There's no discussion of what it's like being a genie, no mention of how she feels about being a genie, etc.
Which makes it all the more frustrating when the film ends with Bernard wishing Flora free.
Without so much as asking her if that's what she wants.
In the end, Bernard is allowed three additional wishes after setting Flora free (Because "There's always something you forget"). These three wishes (and arguably the first among them) wind up being the only ones that ultimately matter to the movie. This conclusion makes Flora feel superfluous to an already shallow film.
As a final note, the wishes in the movie are like... Overwhelmingly bad, and wasted??? Outside of a few teleport wishes, there's not much that Bernard wishes for that isn't something he might've just bought. Granted, he gets the goods immediately, but there's very little imagination involved in these wishes!***
Should I be putting this level of thought into this film?
Fuck no. It's a Hallmark Holiday Movie - The kind of made for TV drivel that's supposed to be on in the background while you rush through the season. It was never going to be good. And it was never going to be a deep dive on genie stuff. Or even a good display of genie performance.
But it's what we've got now. This is the movie titled "Genie".**** And sadly it always will be.
It wasn't bad. It wasn't offensive. It was just bland.
American cheese over dry toast.
Oh well. Someday, I hope we get a genie themed spectacular of some sort.
I sure wish for such, at least.
*Yes, that is his name. But I hardly have room to criticize. I've named myself "Phorm".
**I might add, given the fact that Bernard appears to live in a luxury highrise apartment with a spectacular view, in what appears to be DOWNTOWN NEW YORK, I would surmise that losing his job would be the slightest bit entirely terrifying. But it never comes up. It's brushed off. Christ, that apartment looked nicer than any home I've ever had. And bigger, too!!!
***At one point in the movie, Flora just outright produces a no-limit Genie-brand credit card, so they don't have to wish so much. This illustrates the point far plainer than I ever could.
****As an addendum - Apparently the film is an adaptation of a 1991 British Television movie entitled Bernard and The Genie. No idea how that one was received.


