REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES — Alfred Molina’s Return to Octo-Form

Review by Steve Barton II

In the current Hollywood landscape, book adaptations come out almost every weekend and it’s hard to decide which ones are worth the time. Luckily, if you see the name Olivia Newman on the director’s chair, you’ve made the right choice! Olivia directed 2022’s Where the Crawdad’s Sing and several episodes of the series adaptation of Laura Dave’s novel The Last Thing He Told Me, so she’s had some solid reps in the adaptation department. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the newest Netflix original film and it’s an adaptation of the beloved 2022 novel from Shelby Van Pelt. The film follows Tova (Sally Field) as an aging widow who works in a local aquarium as the night shift janitor and she grows a bond with Marcelleus, the old octopus voiced by the legendary Alfred Molina. After Tova suffers a leg injury, she’s forced to train her replacement, a newcomer to the small town named Cameron (Lewis Pullman) who is lost in life and looking for his birth father. The two lost souls develop an unlikely bond and learn how to live through grief and loss together.


While it may be rewarding to read the novel before seeing Remarkably Bright Creatures, it’s not required text to enjoy this film. From my limited knowledge, the story is faithful to the source material and it will absolutely rip your heart out to show it to you. The major themes explored are grief, aging and the magical power of friendship. With the brilliant narration creatively filling in context through an aging octopus, aspects like this make it stand out among the rest. Rather than a hardly written side character that’s purely there for exposition dumps and comedic relief, Marcellus is a major contributor to the overarching plot and creates a genuine connection with these lost souls.

Sally Field is putting in her bid early for an Oscar nomination and I’m gladly co-signing! Sally has had a storied career and has been in so many iconic films like Smokey and the Bandit and Lincoln and even won 2 Oscars back in the 1980s. With her role as Tova, Sally digs into some real emotions as an older actress who has surely dealt with loss being typecasted into basic “grandmother” roles in more recent years like 80 for Brady. She and Lewis Pullman bounce one another in scenes so perfectly and their emotional scenes will have the whole house in tears. Both of their characters have been dealt horrible hands in the game of life, yet they find meaning again in themselves and others with the help of their eight-armed friend.


Remarkably Bright Creatures may cause you to grab the tissue box on several occasions to wipe away the sad tears, you’ll need them for the happy ones too! While Tova may be an older woman, her spunk and personality keeps her young at heart. She has no problem putting folks in their place and standing up for what’s right, with a couple dashes of sass that only Sally can do. Lewis Pullman also has an incredible acoustic rendition of Radiohead’s I Can’t that hits like an emotional gut punch, especially after learning all the pain that Cameron has experienced over the years and the power of overcoming it. The rest of the cast is full of great performances that fill in this small town that makes it feel adorable and claustrophobic in the next breath.


In the end, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a film that you’ll never regret spending the time watching. Everything from the incredibly touching story and the exorbitantly talented cast will certainly have fans of the novel fulfilled and satisfy newcomers too. The world collectively paused when Alfred Molina returned to Doc Ock back in 2021 and they will do the same for Marcellus (eventually). 


Remarkably Bright Creatures is available on Netflix starting May 8th!


Rating: 5/5