This just does not work. It's like a combination of a John Lewis Christmas ad and a flashback episode from a show like Lost where they use shorthand to show you all a character's important life events, but it goes on for 100 minutes. The frame-in-frame mechanic is the least imaginative transition method they could have come up with, and it feels so stiff, just like everything else in the movie - the acting (especially but not exclusively when via CG de-aging), the blocking where everyone steps perfectly into frame for their big speeches, the dialogue where historical echoes and period-establishing elements and hints at future illnesses are delivered with all the subtlety of a cheap animatronic park ride, and the centuries-old exterior settings feel about as real as a school play backdrop.
I can imagine a version of this that might have worked, if the transitions were more inventive, the dramatic moments smaller, the staging messier, the Forrest Gump of it all reduced. But alas.
Also, they should have left that tidal wave in.
Rating: stiff, cheesy, shallow.
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