Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 111 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 8 May 2026

WHO’S IN REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES?

Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, Colm Meaney, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Laura Harris, Alfred Molina, Meghan Heffern

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Olivia Newman (director, writer), John Whittington (writer), Peter Craig, David Levine and Bryan Unkeless (producers), Dickon Hinchliffe (composer), Ashley Connor (cinematographer), Tanara Meem (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An octopus (Molina) observes the tender story of its elderly caretaker (Field)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES?

If you want to know just how harmless Remarkably Bright Creatures is, it’s narrated by an octopus. Yes, one of the ocean’s most non-aggressive animals is our unlikely storyteller in director and co-writer Olivia Newman’s gentle drama, just as it was in Shelby Van Pelt’s novel of the same name. That alone should tell you everything about the level of inoffensiveness you’re in store for here.

Granted, that doesn’t make Remarkably Bright Creatures a bad film. Soppy, absolutely, with stakes as low as they can go. But its heart is more or less in the right place, and that does make it fairly palatable, despite the fact that most viewers will likely forget it even exists not long afterwards.

Our improbably omniscient mollusc is a CGI creation named Marcellus who, via the voice of Alfred Molina, narrates how much he misses the calm quiet of the ocean bed, which he hasn’t experienced since being rescued – or, in his opinion, imprisoned – in a tank at an aquarium in a small harbour town. There, he’s subject to endless gawking and irritation from the various visitors, with the only human he has any kind of connection with being Tova (Sally Field), a lonely middle-aged widow who’s effectively cut herself off from her friends and neighbours due to a past tragedy.

Soon after sustaining an injury caused by one of Marcellus’s many escape attempts, she’s placed on leave with her temporary replacement being Cameron (Lewis Pullman), a young man newly arrived in town in search of his birth father, though his initial uselessness in the role prompts an ever-eager Tova to step in and help out. As Marcellus observes the growing friendship between them, he becomes determined to nudge both of them closer to their differing goals so that they, and he, can obtain some much-needed closure in their lives.

It really is the kind of film you’d expect it to be, one that wears its sentimentality all over its sleeve and offers little, if anything at all, in terms of truly heavy conflict. Newman ensures that Remarkably Bright Creatures maintains its soothing tone with direction that softens each and every blow, ensuring that all dramatic beats land with as much impact as a feather on a cushion, while hers and John Whittington’s script heavily signposts some of the biggest reveals in an effort that undermines the light mystery but makes it thoroughly safe for the viewer. It can be a little frustrating in that regard, especially if you’re a viewer who craves more challenging drama and stronger themes, while the writing is perhaps overly twee with on-the-nose dialogue that sounds like it was lifted directly from a more descriptive book.

The film’s overt inoffensiveness also renders the narrative somewhat dull, for the lack of genuine stakes removes much of the engagement and therefore less of a reason to care, especially when it’s made very clear early on where certain character arcs are going to end up. The characters themselves range from generic to underdeveloped, particularly Colm Meaney as a sweet-natured shopkeeper and Sofia Black-D’Elia as the owner of a local paddleboard store, while every so often there’ll be some who feel as though they’ve emerged from a particularly generic sitcom, most notably a group of fellow middle-aged women who are always one judgmental remark away from joining Kramer and Helen Lovejoy in the sitcom busybody hall of fame. Even Marcellus, our seemingly whimsical octopus narrator, is barely a character outside of the passive observer who somehow knows every event in this story, including the ones where he is not physically present. His CG rendering is also distracting, making him look like something from a hypothetical photorealistic “live-action” remake of Finding Nemo (if by chance you’re reading this, Disney, do NOT get any ideas!).

Just about saving the film from middling mediocrity are the two lead performances. Field has such a warm screen presence in a role that vaguely recalls the ones she became a double Oscar-winner for, while Pullman is quietly compelling as a broken young man struggling to find his way in life. Both actors share a nice on-screen chemistry that one can easily root for, even in moments that come the closest to delivering some kind of heavily dramatic conflict, much of which does hold most of your attention because you really feel their commitment to the material. There are points where their undeniable screen talent even saves entire scenes that otherwise, as stated earlier, contain some rather surface-level dialogue that few other actors can deliver as well as they can. Of course, it wouldn’t be very professional of them to intentionally sabotage their cloying dialogue, but the fact that they seemingly resist such an urge when they so easily could not have given much of a stuff is a testament to their grace as screen performers.

The script, as flimsy as it may be, is at least trying to be sincere about itself, and while it doesn’t entirely work as a formidable narrative with dramatic stakes or even a set of wholly developed characters, Newman does make the proceedings gentle enough to avoid a full-on assault of blandness. Though I will admit, for a film sold on the concept of it being told largely from the perspective of an octopus in an aquarium, Remarkably Bright Creatures does technically deliver on that front. It just isn’t as remarkable as it could have been.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a gentle and wholly inoffensive drama that has its heart in the right place, but a lack of significant stakes caused by heavy signposting and soppy storytelling render it somewhat forgettable.

Click here or check below to find where you can stream Remarkably Bright Creatures now, thanks to JustWatch!