by Colleen O’Brien
I watched a movie three times in two weeks. And read the book. I haven’t been quite so crazy about a story in a long time — since I read Gone With the Wind five times between the ages of 12 and 20 (when I finally got it that Rhett and Scarlett were not suited.)
“Remarkably Bright Creatures,” the movie currently streaming on Netflix, from the book, written by Shelby Van Pelt published in 2022, filled something I needed. It is a complicated, slowly revealed story of a 70-year-old night custodian, several of her female friends (the “Knit-Wits),” a confused young fellow and a chatty older gentleman. The heavy burden of the janitor’s son lost decades before is the point of the story. But the most compelling part is the ageing custodian’s relationship with an aquarium-bound octopus, who is reflective and philosophical about life, both crustaceous (the crusty critters he eats) and the soft-bodied human who visits him every night.
Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus injured by an ocean enemy and captured to mend him so he won’t die, is the co-star of the movie, along with Sally Field, who is the late-night cleaning lady of the aquatic museum he is somewhat captive in. Marcellus ponders “the idiocy of humans with their one million words and complete inability to understand one another.” Tova, the night custodian, is unaware that he has learned all about her just by watching. She merely talks to him while polishing his glassed showroom and cleans up after him the nights he escapes from his “prison.”
Because they can’t seem to find the right words in their own vocabulary to speak honestly and without judgment on one another, humans clearly annoy the remarkably bright Marcellus, although he considers Tova unusual as her sadness captures his heart. His pondering about her species is repetitive and stern, his judgment of humans is right-on – and of several crustaceans in tanks near him in the aquarium, hilarious; but it is the humans he pegs every time as he muses to us about life among homo sapiens.
The wisdom and wit of an octopus who escapes his tank nightly to feast on his fellow creatures is the compelling part of the story; the plot is well-hidden, and humans play their roles well, but it is Marcellus who steals the show.
A tale of funny scenes amid beautiful scenery on the northwest coast of America, heart-wringing revelations, a reflective giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, who narrates the tale, and a mystery finally solved. Watch it, read it [the movie deletes a couple of stories from the book, but I found the movie better – Sally Field can play any part, and this one is Oscar material]. Enjoy.
