There is a nostalgic air to The End of Oak Street that is quite engaging. This permeates into almost all aspects of the film. It starts with its look, set in suburban Middle America in the eighties; its colour palette is awash with warm and somewhat faded tones. The acting is also delivered with a style that rubs against today’s hyper-realistic approach. It’s almost quaint.
Writer/director David Robert Mitchell continues his fascination with American suburbia with a Science Fiction yarn that involves dinosaurs and time portals. The story is also a bit of a throwback with its presentation of danger. As the Thunder Lizards and their ilk ramp up their occupational numbers, the violence inherent in their ways is played mostly for comic effect.
A-list actors Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are given roles in which their lives are mired in the downward trajectory of an unhappy union. She is a frustrated writer, and he has problems with employment while secretly day drinking. They endure plain lives with an optimism that feels from another time. When their heroism emerges, it feels organic.
The End of Oak Street reminds one of a time in the cinema universe that would have felt right at home in the days of drive-ins and enjoying on-screen peril while rugged up in your jammies, drinking hot cocoa while being surrounded by your family members and enjoying every minute. It’s the kind of look back at a simpler time that will always feel welcoming.
Rob Hudson
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