Three Thousand Years of Longing

Who’s to tell George Miller what to do? Of course he can follow up Mad Max: Fury road with Three Thousand Years of Longing, a fascinating adaptation of A.S. Byatt’s short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye,” about literary scholar Alithea (Tilda Swinton), her accidental unbottling of a kindly djinn (Idris Elba), and her decision of what to do with the three wishes he grants her.

Consistently packing a visual wallop, the djinn’s stories of his past escapades and his present-day conversations with Alithea mesh nicely in informing her decisions, tackling some of life’s biggest questions via rampant creativity and captivating chemistry between Swinton and Elba while intelligently combining humor and heartbreak without ever feeling immature or cloying. Sure, the number of fade-to-blacks in the final 20 minutes rivals those of The Return of the King, but the spell Miller and his collaborators cast will send enchanted viewers from the theater feeling like they’ve experienced something wholly new.

Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, Fine Arts Theatre, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: MGM Pictures)