Grown-up fairy-tale 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' underlines power of stories

Since George Miller rarely steps behind the camera to make a movie, it’s important to pay attention when he does.

In a career spanning nearly 50 years, he’s directed all the “Mad Max” and “Happy Feet” films. He directed “The Witches of Eastwick,” and co-wrote and produced “Babe” as well as directing its sequel. Considering his filmography, it’s hard to see what makes the guy tick. Which makes him all the more fascinating.

His latest film is “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” a fairy-tale squarely for adults that challenges the concept of our fantasies while examining the act of storytelling itself. It’s the type of movie one expects from an accomplished filmmaker heading into the twilight of his career, explaining why he spent his life spinning incredible tales to a group of strangers sitting in a darkened room. It’s a personal story, but also very meta as well.

Alithea (Tilda Swinton) is a narratologist who travels to Istanbul to deliver a lecture. She speaks to how scientific knowledge replaces more primitive understandings of the world and how that previous, ignorant viewpoint becomes ancient mythology.

Already, the audience senses this perspective will be debunked by the rest of the film. Also, for anyone inclined to Google such things, Alithea is the goddess of truth in Greek mythology. Take note of that as well.

More: Horror comedy 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' asks who the real victims are

While souvenir hunting, Alithea purchases a bottle. In her hotel room, as she’s scrubbing it up, a genie called The Djinn pops out of the ancient receptacle. He is large, has oddly-pointed ears, and is played by Idris Elba.

He has three wishes to grant, but there are rules to what he can and cannot accommodate. Endless wishes and eternal life are always exempt in these situations. Plus, the wish must sincerely come from the heart. Always with all these rules with magical beings.

Alithea is skeptical of these powers, despite the fact this man has emerged from a bottle before her very eyes. Or maybe she is scared of what is inside of her heart.

To buy time, she quizzes Djinn about his origins and the pained journey his eternal life has taken. It starts in Biblical times, when Djinn becomes a confidant of the Queen of Sheba as she seeks love and power from King Solomon. Solomon becomes jealous of Djinn’s abilities and returns him back to the bottle just to be tossed into the sea.

The other stories the Djinn narrates follow a similar track. “Longing” is a meditation, not only about love, but the illusion of time. About how smart, ambitious figures make the same mistakes because their passions and obsessions drive them to the same outcomes. It’s also about how fantasies — no matter how simple — can be imposed upon others without consequence.

The stories that come out of our heads have great power and must be handled carefully, storyteller Miller strives to warn.

As I watched the film, my mind drifted to two other under-appreciated gems from the past 15 or so years. Both “The Fountain” and “Cloud Atlas” tackled the idea of how love almost metaphysically transcends time, yet still holds a basic power over those who truly feel it.

There’s something about a story that understands history is not necessarily a study of how things are different, but how things are fundamentally the same. “Longing” join this odd curio of movies that have a strong impact on me but little sway over the culture at-large.

Which is to say I don’t hold hope for the commercial prospects of this film just in the same way those other two titles probably caused you to scramble and look them up. “Longing” will not appeal to anyone looking for a traditionally romantic film. As a fantasy, the perplexing R rating — given for some gratuitous full-frontal business — might detour people expecting something grittier and less fantastical.

More: Second season of Ragtag Cinema's Show Me Series kicks off with 'Loving'

Almost all of the relationships in the film are doomed — that’s the point, after all — and the central relationship is hardly fiery. Both Swinton and Elba are wonderfully unusual screen personalities but don’t have much chemistry. That too is the point, but might be a turnoff if you are not warned in advance.

Miller does create a visually wonderful experience. His camera is restless, hyperkinetic. Whenever he wants to really disorientate you, the frames will speed up. Given the relatively limited budget of “Longing,” the historical segments are sumptuous. Perhaps they were able to save pennies by limiting Swinton and Elba to a hotel room for nearly the entire duration of their screen time.

Regardless, the film is a glimpse of Miller’s active, unceasing imagination as well as an insight on his craft. That’s worth giving the film a look in and of itself.

In real life, James Owen is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. He created/wrote for Filmsnobs.com from 2001-2007 before an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield. He was named a Top 20 Artist under the Age of 30 by The Kansas City Star when he was much younger than he is now.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' underlines power of stories