In the film world, there is a unique brand of magic created when a production house takes a look at a script for a medium budget family drama, rolls its eyes, and thinks, “you know what would really help this film? Dinosaurs.” And thus The End of Oak Street was created – a film from the mind of David Robert Mitchell and produced by the J.J. Abrams company, which has promised all of that and dinosaurs. And shockingly enough, it does work.
The setting is this: Greg and Denise Platt (Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway) are a Michigan couple whose marriage is crumbling behind a picket fence so perfect it should come with an agent. Greg is trying to make believe it’s all still back to the days of barbeques and potato sack races. Denise is seeking a discussion that acknowledges the reality that their family unit is, using the scientific term, toast. Audrey (Maisy Stella), the couple’s teenage daughter, is being a stereotypical teenager, Brian (Christian Convery), the couple’s little son, is being a stereotypical little brother, and the Platts are one meal from exploding at each other’s face.
And then the world, for some reason having enough of a couple not facing their issues, yanks their little street out of 1982 suburbia and into an era when dinosaurs roamed.
The End of Oak Street Premise: Dinosaurs Meet Divorce
Think of Jurassic Park in loungewear and you’re pretty much there. The film revels in its Amblin references, throwing in little bits to E.T., Poltergeist, and yes, even an Easter Egg to Jurassic Park that, technically speaking, could not happen because the movie takes place several years prior to the Spielberg film. It’s the kind of joke that will either make you laugh or make your head spin so much you’ll give yourself an injury.
The thing that separates The End of Oak Street from being just a cheap rip-off is that it commits to the joke. Once the neighborhood winds up in dinosaur territory, it doesn’t waste any time getting into the action. Lawnmowers are now weapons. Station wagons are getaway cars. A grumpy neighbor suddenly becomes an asset for some reason. There’s something to be said about how best to repair a relationship than by forcing you and your spouse to defend against a Stegosaurus attack together.
The End of Oak Street Cast: Hathaway and McGregor Anchor the Chaos
The two have better conviction about the dramatic stakes involved than the concept probably deserves, and that’s precisely what a film like this requires. Particularly, Hathaway appears to be relishing herself in her role as a woman who has had more than enough of all the nonsense that is going around, even from the dinosaurs’.
As for McGregor, he does well as the sad-dad-in-denial character, giving Greg sufficient weakness for us not to want to hand him off to the first carnivorous creature, even though he has it coming. Maisy Stella and Christian Convery are equally effective as the children involved in both a domestic tangle and a Mesozoic attack, while P.J. Byrne makes an appearance as Mel Jacobs, the neighbors who help break things up through some well-deserved humor.
The End of Oak Street Review: Where the Wheels Wobble
The problem with end-of-summer films, the ones that emerge towards the mid-to-late August period, following the summer blockbusters, is that they know what they are, and The End of Oak Street most definitely falls into this category. It is unabashedly entertaining and trashy, and does not pretend to try anything new with the genre. It has been noted that the film struggles to establish whether it is going to be mean to its characters or not, and that in the last twenty minutes, it moves on a track towards being more crowd-pleasing after an hour of chaos. This criticism might ring true, as tonal whiplash does happen, and if you are the kind of viewer that likes films to stick to a certain tone throughout, this one might prove annoying to watch.
Another issue with the film is that of plausibility, which is completely abandoned halfway through the movie, right when the second encounter with the dinosaurs takes place. If you come to the film expecting logic and hard science fiction, you will leave disappointed. If you expect entertainment, you will leave satisfied.
The End of Oak Street Rotten Tomatoes Score and Critical Reception
The response has been unexpectedly positive for a movie that could have been shrugged off as a novelty piece. Already there have been calls to classify it as one of the best dino flicks after Jurassic Park, with some even daring to label it superior to other recent movies in a long-running series of dinosaurs (which I will refrain from naming but rhymes with “Triassic World”). It is sitting at a Certified Fresh level on Rotten Tomatoes with critics currently averaging in the mid-to-high 80s percent, whereas the audience scores lag slightly at low-to-mid 70s. While critics are a bit more receptive than audiences, there seems to be agreement on one point – that it is a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience, and a movie that should be seen in a crowded movie theater with an audience response becoming part of the experience.
There are some people who are not quite sold on the movie. Some reviewers feel that the movie leans heavily on its sources, and the movie has been said to be more of a tribute than an original idea. This could very well be true, but many successful summer movies have overcome worse critiques before.
Final Verdict
The End of Oak Street will likely never receive any recognition for originality; nor will it make anybody believe that there needed to be a film about dinosaurs and divorce. However, it embraces its own ridiculous plot line so wholeheartedly, and the cast manages to convey the emotions so realistically, that the film becomes one of the most enjoyable summer studio movies.
Sure, it is silly, it may be a bit messy, it does not know sometimes whether it wants to become a sincere family movie or a creature movie, but what happens when one movie can bring tears to the eyes from the relationship between the father and his daughter, and ninety seconds later makes you laugh because of a station wagon escaping from a Spinosaurus?
Should you go see it? Should you be one of those people who are hoping for an entertaining film to watch during their summer break, where they are offered to have a bit of fun while feeling a little emotional throughout the film, then you should be sure that The End of Oak Street would definitely provide you with all that. Take your popcorn, grab a buddy to yell at the screen, and watch how the Platts struggle to survive as a family, a couple, and even as individuals, in just ninety-nine wild minutes.
About the Author
