Lamar Reviews - Remarkably Bright Creatures (Airdate 5/22/2026)

 

I was really surprised when this movie popped up
on my Netflix account. I read this book about a
year ago. I did not know it had been made into a
movie. When I read the synopsis, it was about an
octopus solving a mystery. I am well aware of the
intelligence of the octopus, I watched “My Octopus
Teacher on Netflix twice. Great documentary, you
really need to watch it. But I was not thinking I
would enjoy a book that had an octopus who was
a Sherlock Holmes, or Jessica Fletcher. After
reading the glowing reviews, I gave the book a
shot. I was wrong, the book was really good. I
I mentioned this book to numerous people, only to
receive uncomfortable smiles, and “Sounds good,
I’ll be sure to check it out” in a patronizing tone,
mixed with a dose of superciliousness. When I
mentioned this book to Sheri, knowing for sure
she had never heard of it, she immediately knew
exactly what book I was talking about. She has
always been the smartest person I’ve ever met but
now I know for absolutely sure she has read every
book that has ever been published.

When I looked up the details of the movie, I was
pleasantly surprised to see Sally Field starring in
the movie along with Lewis Pullman, who is Bill
Pullman’s son, and looks just like his dad.
This is a feel-good movie in every way. Sally Field
plays Tova Sullivan, a widow that is still grieving
the deaths of not only her husband, but also their
teenage son. He son died 30 years ago. The
rumor in the small town she lives in has always
been suicide. She has a friend group along with a
local shopkeeper, that helps her cope. At night
she enjoys the solitude of her job cleaning the
aquarium. One resident that she particularly
enjoys is Marcellus, a Giant Pacific octopus who
she talks to all the time. We hear everything
Marcellus is thinking because his inner voice is
provided by Alford Molina.
Marcellus is computer generated but he was
designed after a real-life octopus named Agnetha
who lives at the Vancouver Aquarium. They took
hours of footage of Agnetha in her tank and
created an exact replica in CGI, which was mixed
with actual footage of Agnetha.

An unemployed musician named Cameron, played
by Lewis Pullman, rolls into town in search of the
father he never met. He lives in a campervan that
belonged to his addict mom who died of an
overdose. Pullman does his own guitar playing
and singing, and it’s not bad.
There are a lot of moving pieces here and the one
that knows where they should be is Marcellus.
How he gets them to fit together is pretty
interesting to watch.
It’s Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some
strong language and suggestive references.
This is a really good family movie, like a Hallmark
movie with top-of-the-line actors, and a better plot.
Since this is on Netflix and you are probably
already paying for it, there is really no good
reason not to watch it.
I loved the book, liked the movie.
My Score is 4 Buds.