Review: The End of Oak Street

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The Platt family (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as Denise and Greg, along with their two children Audrey and Brian played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery) bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown.

Maybe it's because Jurassic Park came out when I was a kid and remains one of my favorite movies to this day, but I found it impossible not to think about it during The End of Oak Street. Director David Robert Mitchell makes so many choices that just *feel* like a homage to Spielberg. Honestly, I liked this better than any Jurassic Park sequel we've seen since. 

The Platt family is ordinary. No one is a s genius or is highly skilled in fighting, so they really do feel like what the average family would probably be going through in something like this ever happened. Denise and Greg's marriage is already on the rocks before Oak Street is thrown back in time, and I thought it was pretty realistic how they'd bounce back and forth between working together well and being at odds. They also have a scene involving a Polaroid picture they take that was hilarious and absolutely something I could see my husband and I doing too. 

The creatures get a slow reveal even though they were all over the marketing, and yes the CGI isn't as polished as it could be, but I still felt like they looked creepy and intimidating for the most part. The film also pushes it's PG13 rating with the violence in a few scenes which managed to shock me every time since I was very aware I was watching a film meant for families.

Where The End of Oak Street is at its weakest is how it tries to incorporate a few subplots, mainly around Brian. He has a story with a bully that culminates in quite possibly one of the nonsensical scenes I've seen all year. Brian already has the toughest job as being the default dumbest character because he's a 13 year old boy who is thinking more about his dog then his own safety, but the film keeps putting him in situations where the audience can't help but groan. 

Thankfully the adventure makes up for the poor storytelling beats. While The End of Oak Street might not be perfect, it was still a fun time at the movies.

Grade: B-

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