Omniscient narration from a wise octopus voiced by Alfred Molina makes about as much sense as anything else in this cluttered, sentimental tale of small-town intrigue and human connection.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Are people still firing up “My Octopus Teacher” on Netflix? The viral success of that documentary felt like a peak-pandemic phenomenon, when some of us were sufficiently starved for connection with both the natural world and our fellow humans that its thin anthropomorphic musings rang true. If it has a place in anyone’s heart today, however, then so will “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” a fictional bouillabaise of moist-eyed melodrama, marine-life metaphor and all-purpose cod philosophy that, were it not title-bound to the bestseller it’s based on, could have opportunistically been called “My Octopus Therapist” for its Netflix debut.
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