“Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a small movie with big trappings. Like George Miller’s last outing “Mad Max: Fury Road” it is a demonstration of the benefits of the last two decades revolution in cheaper digital movie-making. The plot is too alien for a mainstream audience: an aging scholar of ancient Mesopotamian culture (Tilda Swinton) comfortable in her solitary life, by happenchance and/or fate finds a bottle in Istanbul thrift shop which contains an ancient djinn (Idris Elba), or as you may have heard in a Disney movie, a genie. He grants her a wish, but she refuses to make one. She is well versed in myths and genies and believes that making wishes is not wise. Trickster genies abound and, well, she does not need anything. To convince her to make a wish, this djinn delves into its lives and loves of the past three thousand years. We meet King Solomon, spend time in the harem of the Ottoman sultan, and attain knowledge of the universe. Imagine if this movie had been made twenty years ago. First of all, it wouldn’t have been, at least not with this level of sophistication. It would have been far too expensive a gamble for a storyline that is inherently so niche. (I believe I called “Mad Max: Fury Road” a ‘niche blockbuster’. This is even more so). If it had been, I swear it would have been ugly. There would be no budget for the expanse required. All would be darkness, robes, and sandals.
As it is, we live now, and “Three Thousand Years of Longing” feels like the movie it should be. Much of it takes place in a hotel room in Istanbul in which Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba carry on a long debate amidst flashbacks of the djinn's long life and misfortunes. You could do much worse than spend a few hours listening to the back and forth between Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, two of our most talented actors. Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast as scholar of foreign and ancient knowledge. Idris Elba it can be noted, is Black. Really, an ancient djinn should be of the middle-eastern persuasion. No matter. He has been appropriately cast. He he has the body frame and the intelligence to pull of an ancient djinn (as opposed to say, a Will Smith) and I can’t really think of anybody else I would like to see in the part (honorable mention, Robin Williams for the parody).
Idris Elba tells three stories. The first takes place a long time ago and is pretty straightforward. The djinn is advisor to the Queen of Sheba that falls for King Solomon. I won’t get into it too deep but it ends with the genie being entrapped in a bottle and thrown into the ocean. The second story involves the genie being found by a young concubine in the harem of the Ottoman Sultan. What makes this story interesting is that the concubine actually wishes for something someone of her stature and education would wish for at that time period. Given her narrow view of the world, she wishes to carry the son of the prince as it would automatically catapult her in social standing. And with another dose of realism, she doesn’t fully understand why this might be a dangerous wish in a place where political power is directly related to bloodlines. After some palace intrigue, the genie finds himself in a bottle in at the bottom of the sea again. The third story is the best and legitimately interesting. The genie is found by the youngest wife of an aging merchant. He keeps her in a tower and doesn’t let her out of the house. What she wishes for is the knowledge of the universe. This is granted to her not by some Matrix mind-meld, but by the genie scouring the earth and bringing back to her the best scientific texts. This is the type of woman a djinn could fall in love with and he does. I won’t tell you how this one turns out.
The stories are engaging enough as they are being told, but the movie itself finishes with a bit of an anti-climax. You see Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are actually quite reasonable people so ultimately there is not much of a conflict. Actually the largest controversy in our modern times involves her taking the djinn back to London where two of her nosy old lady neighbors take exception. Why they do this doesn’t make much sense. They make general xenophobic points about culture and what not. Actually, the old neighbors have a point given that the genie is from a place of polygamy and harems, (which might be offensive to the modern woman?). Except the old ladies don’t know that Idris Elba is a djinn, so they just come off as having a prejudice against black people. But the genie shouldn’t be played by a black guy and the movie works best if that fact is quietly ignored. In any event, the whole thing seems to resolve rather quickly once they get a good look at him and realize he's Idris Elba. I believe, yes I believe you could say that everyone lived happily ever after.
