(Some spoilers) ... From the moment the screen lights up, Spielberg lets us know immediately what ‘The Fabelmans’ is. It’s a fable. It’s a story about a family that falls apart for various reasons, and how our young protagonist Sam ‘Sammy’ Fabelman, (loosely based on a young Spielberg, and played effortlessly by TV actor Gabriel LaBelle) sees, and ultimately deals with the truth of life witnessed through the lens of his various cameras.
We meet Sammy at age 6 when he’s taken by mum and dad to the ‘moving pictures’ for the first time. They’re about to watch Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (1952). A reluctant Sammy is persuaded into the cinema by his father Burt (Paul Dano) who explains things in scientific jargon, while his mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) appeals more to his senses. This, we’re told, is the catalyst which sends Fabelman (Spielberg) off down the road to Hollywood.
As Sammy grows, he takes inspiration and courage watching his family, though mostly apathetic, he’s writing a script to suit his POV. The Fabelmans is not the Spielberg film you expect, despite the by-lines that its semi-autobiographic. Yes, it’s Spielberg’s passion project, his most personal film, and perhaps his most intimate movie and … yadda yadda yadda… to use a well-worn-out Yiddish phrase so beloved of Hollywood. It’s all those things, but is it the truth? You can guess at the real story if you like, there are clues scattered throughout, hinting to anyone who cares to question a little deeper. It’s a truth he’d like you to believe.
Let’s be honest here, Spielberg wants to be honest after all, he wants the audience to see what it was like growing up for arguably the world’s most famous contemporary director. For example, he wants you to see how he envied his Christian neighbours as a child, not because of ‘Jesus’, but because he coveted their Christmas fairy lights, which turn up later in the movie, in full-blown, slightly hilarious, sacrilegious glory. When asked by his mother what he wants for Hannukah, among other things, he asks for fairy lights.
Talking of magic, the cast is enchanting as Spielberg rarely gets this wrong, and Michelle Williams as Sammy’s very patient mother is a standout, deserving her Oscar nom. In fact, the entire cast is wonderful, dare I say, even the uncle that’s not really an ‘uncle,’ Bennie (Seth Rogan)!
Spielberg reveals his inspiration for some of the big hits, but strangely only a little sci-fi. Jaws is blaringly obvious, even 1941, ET and Schindler’s List, are here, ‘Hollywood’ heroes old and new, annoying little sisters, you name it, they’re in here somewhere. There is plenty of shameless name dropping of all the corporations, and government projects, his father worked on, going some way to explaining why the family did so much moving across the country during the 50s and 60s.
Although I liked the film for its subject, I found it overly long, and far too slow, with some scenes really dragging during the first half, – so slowly in fact, that you think you’re watching some European art film on BBC4 (sorry to BBC4 viewers). Counterbalance this and intersperse it with shorter scenes of pure genius; I wouldn’t have paid the ticket for a Spielberg movie experience otherwise.
Sorry Steven for what I’m about to say. I don’t want to be downbeat about your film, it’s a great film for fans, and those with a love of filmmaking in general, or the history of cinema, perhaps also those who are looking for answers into why their dysfunctional family broke down, The high-school scenes are genuinely brilliant, but this is not really the movie I want to watch. I’ve never ever said that about a Spielberg film before. Go see it and tell me I’m wrong.
