Remarkably Bright Creatures: The Feel-Good Cry of the Year Comes With Tentacles

When I read the book about a year ago, I was worried about whether this remarkably touching story would be done justice in its movie translation. At the centre of it all is Tova Sullivan – an old cleaning lady still haunted by the premature death of her teenage son, Erik – and Cameron, a young man looking for the father who supposedly left him as a newborn.

Enter Marcellus, a Giant Pacific Octopus who becomes a bridge between these two characters. He is too intelligent for his own good and figures out the truth about Cameron and Tova’s relationship way before they do, and desperately tries to find a way to tell them before his death.

​When I watched the movie bright and early this morning – a mere 15 minutes after its release – I was glad to see the story I had cared about so much had indeed been done justice. There are cuts – rightfully so – and adjustments to the finale, slight changes to the story, but none of them impacts it at its core.

If anything, the movie’s finale is way more satisfying than the book’s, as Tova manages to learn the truth about Cameron’s birth father before selling her house. The movie keeps the tone intact; it doesn’t make the story overly sentimental or change the plot and characters in any dramatic way.

​At the heart of this wonderfully crafted movie is Alfred Molina’s voice, giving life to a CGI octopus and perfectly embodying the wisdom and the otherworldly quality of Marcellus’s character: he might not be human, and Molina is never on screen, but his narration is the emotional core of this movie (and perhaps the most difficult role to cast).

This unusual character is outside of the main narrative, he is as much of an observer as the audience is, and interacts with the story in the same way the audience would: when frustrated by knowing more than the humans who surround him, he tries to push the truth onto them and move the plot along.

​My judgment on the cast might be biased; by the time I came across the book, both the iconic Sally Field and Lewis Pullman had already been cast as Tova Sullivan and her long-lost grandchild, Cameron Cassmore. There was never a time I could have imagined these characters in a different way, but at the same time, this is maybe what it was supposed to be like from the start: I couldn’t have imagined anyone else breathing life into the pages of Shelby Van Pelt’s flawed and hurt humans as well as Field and Pullman did.

Tova, with Marcellus, is the heart  of this story, and Sally Field manages to portray that strength and frailty that comes with old age when you have lived a long life, been through a lot of pain, but at the same time recognise that the end is near. Every bit of her acting is masterful, as expected, beautifully nuanced, most of the time barely needing any words at all.

Lewis Pullman also delivers a performance that hits the spot in both its most dramatic and comedic aspects. Cameron is lost, hanging on to childish dreams of making his band happen, not taking responsibility for his actions, and stuck in a spiral of pain caused by his mother’s struggle with drug abuse.

He is thoughtful, good at heart, but lost in pain and anger that make him blind. Pullman delivers every aspect of this complex young man’s journey, and speaks to other 30-somethings stuck in arrested development. His struggle is beautifully summed up by one  line in the movie, ‘I honestly don’t know what the hell I am doing, whether I should stay or go, or where I should go or why I am even here’.

Despite coming from acting nobility (Lewis is the son of the iconic and beloved actor Bill Pullman), he has earned the place he is in with every performance.

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The emotional path for these characters leads them to the same place: it unsticks them from their hopeless circle of hurt, opening them up to relationships they never thought possible, and to becoming open to accepting help from friends. It removes them from self-imposed  loneliness and gifts them a community.

From the delicate soundtrack (Radiohead, The Barr Brothers) to the beautiful scenery of the Pacific Northwest, everything about this movie seems handpicked to showcase the softness of this feel-good story. It is proof that wonderful material can still be produced when new stories are told. In an industry stuck in a loop of remakes, ‘reheating the same ol’ nachos’ to put it in online lingo, it proves that new voices are where it’s at.

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Directed by Olivia Newman

Adapted from Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022)

Starring Alfred Molina, Sally Field, and Lewis Pullman.

Available on Netflix from 8th May 2026