The End of Oak Street is an enjoyable prehistoric romp
Since the early 1800s, human beings have been fixated with dinosaurs. Perhaps, it’s the puzzle of deciphering new species from fragmented skeletons or the idea that millions of years before our own time, there were creatures roaming the earth that dwarfs us in scale and impact. Dinosaurs present the Earth in a different context, one not dictated society but rather by selection of the fittest. It’s very clear to audiences that in a fight between humans and dinosaurs, the dinosaurs are almost always going to win. While this week’s box-office numbers place Spider-Man: Brand New Day at number one, the second and third place winners were animated children’s movie Paw Patrol:The Dino Movie and horror film The End of Oak Street starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor.
Directed by It Follows director David Robert Mitchells, the film is set in a suburban neighborhood in the 1980s. We follow the Platt family, a family desperate to maintain the facade of a healthy, normal life. But as parents Denise (Hathaway) and Greg (McGregor) attempt to fit into weekend barbecues and neighborhood mingling, it is clear that their marriage is on the rocks with Greg juggling multiple jobs and Denise secretly writing a very thinly veiled novel about their marriage. Meanwhile, teenage children Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) seem unsure if their parents will stay together, not knowing Denise and Greg have pretty much decided on their separation retreating to their own private realities within their shared lives.
The End of Oak Street establishes the baseline tension of the Platt’s existence, then adds a scientific twist as a series of strange flashes transports the family’s suburban neighborhood to the Jurassic period. The family mistake the power and water being out as a simple inconvenience, despite the family’s usually barky and present dog Starbuck disappearing overnight. While Brian worries about the dog, Denise and Greg go about seeing what exactly is wrong in their neighborhood, with Denise sneaking off to try and deliver her novel to her neighbor on the promise of professional editing and discovering the woman brutally murdered inside her home. As Greg tries to find the dog and deduce what is going on with the utilities, he comes face to face with an impossibility as a prehistoric raptor mauls a neighbor. With the couple fleeing from their respective horrors, the Platt family discovers they are stuck in a dangerous new reality: dinosaurs are tearing apart their neighborhood.
The rest of the film is a game of survival with the question remaining how exactly Oak Street ended up transported in the past. As the family arms themselves, they find themselves separated by massive herbivores tearing through the neighborhood, pitting the children and a new neighbor girl against a hoard of dinosaurs without the reliability of Denise’s shotgun as they attempt to rescue the newly found Starbuck. This sequence is particularly enjoyable, as Audrey and Brian vie for the new girl Jeanette (Jordan Alexa Davis) in a fun, bisexual, sibling rivalry sort of 1980s romance subplot moment. Meanwhile, Denise and Greg’s issues come to a head as they try to rescue the children, tearing the couple apart as Denise’s novel is lost and Greg reveals he was fired from his main job months ago and is moonlighting as a pizza driver to keep the family afloat.
The film’s final act is particularly impactful as the pair reunite with the kids, only for the inevitability of their divorce to be revealed to the family. Seeing yet another series of strange lights, the family attempt to crisscross the neighborhood to jump into a strange portal that seemingly leads to their old lives. But in the course of this, a T-Rex pursues the family, nearly killing Denise before Greg somewhat stupidly sacrifices himself to the horror of their watching children. The surviving family members and Jeanette manage to jump through the portal, finding themselves at a phone booth on the edge of the neighborhood seemingly several minutes before the neighborhood was transported to the past. With what seems to be a Rolodex of phone numbers memorized, Denise manages to warn the neighborhood to evacuate, saving hundreds - including Greg - from being transported to the past and launching her to international fame with her published memoir.
The End of Oak Street excels under David Robert Mitchell’s direction, blending family drama with science fiction thrills. While Hathaway excels as Denise, McGregor perhaps plays Greg a tad too put together for a man I would describe as a bit of a deadbeat, with the film’s implication that Denise remains with the pre-dinosaur character development Greg in the end of the film frustrating me to no end. This film also manages to twist the viewer’s heartstrings in a way that seemed somewhat distracting, with Starbuck’s disappearance and possible death to dinosaurs walking the edge of killing a dog on-screen. The Platts also have a pretty consistent lack of situational and environmental awareness throughout the film, to the point that people were kind of yelling at the screen.
However, the film’s concept manages to be entertaining enough that these are small complaints against an overall enjoyable romp through space time.
