Three Thousand Years of Longing: A Reimagining of the Djinn Story

In one very specific way, and not related to the content of the movie itself, Three Thousand Years of Longing is very similar to Kangaroo Jack. When Kangaroo Jack was marketed, and if one was a kid in the early 2000s they almost certainly remember this, it was billed as a movie that featured a talking kangaroo as a major character through most of it. When one saw the film, they did not see the titular kangaroo except for one scene where it was a hallucination. Similarly, Three Thousand Years of Longing is being billed as a generic globetrotting adventure with a genie when that cannot be further from the truth. What the film is however is substantially deeper and a way more interesting take on the traditional Djinn plot.

Three Thousand Years of Longing follows Alithea (Tilda Swinton) who is a fiction academic that acquires a glass trinket that holds a Djinn (Idris Elba) inside it. Alithea releases the Djinn and is given three wishes. While she tries to decide what she is going to do with said wishes, the Djinn (who is not given a name) regales her with his story of how he ended up in the lamp.

The biggest problem with the movie comes in its third act. Much like many other movies in the last few years, it seems that the narrative cannot make up its mind about when it should end, resulting in an overlong third act that just kind of drones on. Without spoiling it, the main thrust of the narrative ends and then there is this overlong coda that just falls flat completely and that itself ends at three separate points that keeps on contradicting itself. Had the movie just ended when the Djinn finished telling his story and the resulting actions from that from Alithea, the runtime would have probably clocked in under feature-length, however the end result would have been better.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that the visuals, from costuming to production design, are all top notch. The majority of the storytelling takes place in the past and in or around Istanbul and the sets and costumes all look beautiful. The way things change as the titular length of time elapses is illustrated on screen in a way that is easy to track and adds to the overall experience. While the effects are not always the best, the practical set dressings more than make up for it.

Three Thousand Years of Longing does deserve to be seen theatrically because of the pure visual spectacle behind the experience. When that is coupled with a fantastic story told over centuries, the experience is something that people should seek out to view. If nothing else, the ambition behind the movie is worth the price of admission. The film is playing in large format theaters, which is the best way to see it.

Final Rating: 8/10