Rent Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Three Thousand Years of Longing review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Few fantasy films feel as though they’re truly meant for adults as Three Thousand Years of Longing. Fantasy always tends to be pitched to a younger crowd, given the wild imagination and inspiration for the future. Adults tend to lose some of that wonderment with age. But do they? George Miller’s film aims to find some of that fantasy with older age, where magic and sex mingle in poignant ways.

Tilda Swinton plays Alithea Binnie, an accomplished woman who specializes in the literature of the past and how it can shape our future. While traveling for a conference where she tries to relate myths to modern-day superhero media, she finds a pretty-looking artifact. While in her hotel room, she tries to scrub off the grime and unearths the towering presence of the lamp’s Djinn (Idris Elba). Having been locked away for several decades, the Djinn is intrigued by the modern world but adjusts rather well; despite his massive size, he’ll need to shift upon his entrance.

Djinn fills in Binnie on his nature of wishes, something she’s keenly aware of. However, Binnie is also smart enough to realize that no story about wishes is as simple as dreams coming true. Something dark might lurk under the surface. Untrustworthy of this magical being, she convinces the Djinn to spill his guts on his many histories with wishes and how they might’ve been misconstrued. Ultimately, Djinn wants to find love but is denied to him at every turn by competing forces, greedy souls, or bad luck. A lifetime of heartaches makes this seemingly immortal being forlorn to find the good in inhumanity, tempting Binnie to see if she can find it.

Most of the film presents a freewheeling anthology of Djinn many loves across time. This leads to such fantastical sequences as dazzling a princess in her kingdom and endowing a locked-away woman with brilliant insight. You start to feel for this guy who just can’t catch a break, enduring loneliness for years and sadness with each woman lost. He’s more than willing to wait for the right woman but hasn’t found it yet. More importantly, there’s a fear that a relationship won’t last if he stays the same age while the women grow older. Perhaps Binnie will be the one to break the curse.

Despite how much time Elba spends as the storyteller of his lost loves, the chemistry between Elba and Swinton is remarkable. Here are two intelligent and emotionally vulnerable adults who speak with a surprising amount of honesty and longing. You can tell they’re destined to be with each other but require a great deal of trust and a helping of faith to take their relationship to the next level. And, if you’re curious, there is an erotic moment between the two with Elba’s character much more giant than Swinton. The film is worth watching, if nothing else, for Miller’s daringness to have a brief but unforgettable genie sex scene.

Miller’s direction of this fantasy romance is brilliant for how much faith it has in staging its simple story with an epic nature. A lesser film might’ve lingered too long on a war sequence or spent too much time delighting in the magical special effects or making a meal out of the fish-out-of-water Djinn. Thankfully, the film never brings itself down to that safe level that so many special effects-heavy films retreat towards. There’s a stellar script at play with two romantic leads placed in an unorthodox but refreshing fantasy tale.

Three Thousand Years of Longing will not be everybody’s cup of tea. It meanders a bit in its anthology of Djinn romances, and the ending is ambiguous for those hoping for a straightforward romance. But for those willing to take a chance on a romance that dabbles in the existential while caking on some alluring fantasy elements, this is an incredibly unique film that manages to be more than just a film where Swinton and Elba get busy with magical enhancements.