Film Pick of the Week: The Fabelmans - review by Yvette Huddleston

The Fabelmans are electrical engineer dad Burt (Paul Dano), free-spirited mom Mitzi (Michelle Williams), teenage son Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) and his three younger sisters. The family often have to move around because of Burt’s work, something which Mitzi finds difficult. She is warm, creative and imaginative – she makes life an adventure for her children, but her mental health is fragile and the marriage under strain. Relocating from New Jersey, the Fabelmans settle briefly in Arizona and then California, where young Sammy is subjected to antisemitic bullying at high school and has to navigate his way through that. At the same time, he is becoming aware that lovely family friend ‘uncle’ Benny (a nice understated performance from Seth Rogen), who is often around, is perhaps more than just a friend to Mitzi. The script addresses, without sentimentality or emotional manipulation, the painful legacy of separation and divorce – and especially the effect it has on the children.

As well as being a totally engaging family drama, the film also offers an insight into Spielberg’s processes as a filmmaker. In an early scene we see Sammy, as a young child, being taken to the cinema to see The Greatest Show on Earth, watching wide-eyed and totally transported, then obsessively trying to recreate the train crash that features in the movie, with his own toy train set at home. Later Sammy applies this same tenacity and problem-solving to create impressive special effects in a comedy western made with a group of high school friends. The narrative makes the link too between storytelling, outsider status and observation – those who are on the sidelines watching are often the ones who tell the best stories. And it doesn’t sidestep the uncomfortable truth that pain is frequently the catalyst for creativity.

Williams has the showiest role, and she is magnificent, but the performances from the whole cast are superb – LaBelle is outstanding, channelling the young Spielberg impressively and Dano’s quiet, hurt and dignified Burt is very affecting. All set in the 1950s and 60s, the period detail is lovingly recreated and glowingly enhanced by Janusz Kaminski’s luminous cinematography. This is a movie which is, as much as anything, a beautiful, moving tribute to Spielberg’s abiding love of film and to the magic of cinema.