In Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, an aquarium octopus attempts to help two of his human caretakers heal from their pasts by showing them what they (the humans) have in common. The film is hampered by unnecessarily foul language, but for older audiences, it’s caring, clever and compassionate.
“Humans, for the most part, are dull and blundering,” says Marcellus.
The octopus would know. Although he spent most of his life roaming the bottom of the sea, he’s been stuck in an aquarium tank the last few years. He was injured by another marine animal. Humans saved his life and rehabilitated him, and for that, Marcellus is grateful. But he’s growing tired of watching herds of elementary schoolers press their faces (and tongues) against the glass. He’s exhausted by the “inept” teachers who escort these kids on field trips. And he’s really getting bored with the frozen halibut the aquarium employees call “food.”
Marcellus misses his ocean home. He misses the kelp paths, his rocky alcove and the veritable “buffet of delicacies” available to him.
But most of all, Marcellus misses the quiet.
Tova, the aquarium’s cleaning lady, understands, because she misses the quiet, too.
About 30 years ago, Tova lost her son under tragic circumstances. The whole town of Sowell Bay talked about it relentlessly. Tova didn’t want to answer questions about her son. She didn’t want to think about what had happened or why.
Her husband, Will, sheltered her from most of the inane chatter. But then he passed away, too, leaving Tova at the mercy of Sowell Bay’s good-intentioned, but intrusive, residents.
Tova vents to Marcellus because she knows he’ll just listen. He won’t try to solve her problems or offer unsolicited feedback. He’s Tova’s quiet companion. And they both like that just fine.
Unfortunately, Marcellus is dying. Although the humans have taken good care of him, he’s just getting on in years. Truth be told, it’s pretty remarkable he’s lasted this long.
But Marcellus doesn’t want to leave Tova alone. She’s already lost so much. He doesn’t want to see her lose someone else.
Luckily, a stranger wanders into town. His name is Cameron. He says he’s searching for a man who owes him money. But when his van breaks down, Cameron winds up sticking around, working at the aquarium to earn the cash he needs to repair the decrepit vehicle.
Tova’s friends say that Cameron is a vagrant. And Tova, while not inclined to believe them, certainly doesn’t think much of the young man either.
But Marcellus knows better. There are things that his eight tentacles (equipped with sensory receptors that far exceed a human’s) tell him about Cameron—things that Cameron shares in common with Tova.
If Marcellus could just get these two humans to communicate clearly—“abysmal communication skills seem to be the hallmark of the human species,” he says—then Tova wouldn’t be left alone when Marcellus goes. In fact, Cameron just might be the person who could heal Tova’s broken heart and end her quest for solitude.
[The following sections may contain spoilers.]
Tova takes her job at the aquarium quite seriously. She may just be a cleaning lady, but she believes that if you’re going to do a job, you should do it right. Cameron takes over for Tova temporarily when she injures her foot. And when she sees that he’s only doing the bare minimum, Tova decides to take him under her wing. She teaches Cameron the correct way of doing things and encourages him to have pride in his work. Scraping gum off floors may not be glamorous, but it makes a difference to the people who visit the aquarium—and it certainly makes a difference to Tova.
Cameron resists Tova’s nagging at first. He insists that his work is “good enough.” But listening to Tova, seeing the pride she takes in the aquarium, he realizes that he can do better. And soon, Tova helps him understand that he can do better outside the aquarium, too. She tells him that he has more value than he may ever know—and that he has people who truly care about him.
Cameron really starts to feel like a son to Tova—a son just like the one she lost. And Tova, in turn, starts to feel like a mother (or perhaps a grandmother, given their age difference) to Cameron—a mom unlike the one he barely knew. Both characters have faced unimaginable loss in their lives. But when they open up to each other—unknowingly guided by Marcellus’ patient ushering—they discover what they have in common, and they both experience healing they never imagined possible. (They also both receive closure for past hurts.)
Tova seems to be woefully unaware of just how much she’s loved by her friends in Sowell Bay. Janice, Mary Ann and Barb have known Tova for years. They all became friends when they were young moms, and the four women comprise a knitting group called the Knitwits. When Tova’s son, Erik, died, she refused to talk about her grief because she didn’t want to be a burden to her friends. Ironically, that act of consideration put a strain on those very friendships through the years. In fact, it’s caused Tova to become a little bitter and judgmental toward her pals. Still, the Knitwits, gossipmongers though they may be, refused to give up on Tova. They’ve encouraged her to meet with them on a regular basis, attend birthday outings and even (after the death of her husband) go on a date. It takes some time (and one of the Knitwits calling her out), but Tova eventually realizes how blessed she is to have such stalwart friends.
Ethan, the proprietor of the local convenience store, has a bad habit of oversharing. However, it’s never malicious. Ethan truly just cares about people. In fact, it’s why he bought the convenience store: He wanted to be in a position where he could provide what people needed. We see him act generously toward everyone he meets, even his hopelessly inept employee, Tanner.
Marcellus occasionally escapes his tank. In a couple of instances, he gets trapped outside—which could be fatal if he’s out of the water for too long—and Tova saves his life. In one instance, he risks his life to fetch an important object for Tova and Cameron. When Marcellus reaches the end of his life, he makes one final break for it, and Tova helps him to reach the ocean safely.
Marcellus has a humorously low opinion of humans. He constantly brags about his own species’ intelligence. However, Tova and Cameron show Marcellus that some humans can occasionally be “remarkably bright creatures.”
Much of this story is narrated by Marcellus. And though he never speaks to anyone within the film, he does seem to have some sensory abilities that are likely out of the bounds of capability for real octopuses.
A woman says paddleboarding is “meditative.”
Cameron likes Avery, the owner of a paddleboard shop. When Tova finds out, she helps Cameron to ask Avery out on a date. Near the end of that date, Cameron learns that Avery is a mom (it’s implied that she became pregnant unexpectedly as a teenager). And while he’s initially freaked out, he later apologizes to Avery and asks her out on another date.
Cameron himself was the result of a teenage pregnancy. We hear the Knitwits gossiping about two women who discovered they were dating the same man after learning they had the same symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease.
Ethan asks Tova out on a date—though Tova doesn’t realize it’s a date. Her friends show up to help her get ready and give her advice about what to say and how to act. One friend asks if Tova has “protection.” On the date, Tova and Ethan flirt and dance together, but after Tova accidentally spills some wine, she flees the scene, embarrassed.
Tova lets Cameron crash on her couch one night. The next morning, she wakes up late and rushes out of her room as she’s pulling on a sweater over her T-shirt. A friend of Tova’s walks into her house as this is occurring, and the friend infers that Tova and (the much-younger) Cameron had an intimate moment together. Later, Tova explains the situation, but not before her friends let loose some double entendres.
A gay man says he pretended to be straight when he was younger to appease his father.
We hear early on that Cameron’s mom died of an overdose. Erik, we learn, died in a boating accident. At one point, Tova pictures him drowning. Because of the circumstances, many people speculate whether Erik’s death was accidental or on purpose. (Tova eventually receives confirmation that his death was an accident, not a suicide.)
A gay man says that his dad would have “killed” him if he’d known his son was gay. The same man says his best friend’s dad was even worse than his and that she was probably scared to tell her dad that she got pregnant in high school.
A man threatens two people with a gun when they knock on his front door.
Marcellus nearly dies a couple of times when he escapes his tank and is unable to get back in (he’s rescued by humans each time). In one instance, we see him struggle after getting caught in electrical cords. Tova saves him, but as he’s “thanking” her by holding her hands with his tentacles, he accidentally yanks her arms, causing her to fall and sprain her ankle. The next day, we see her heavily bruised foot, and she wears a brace for most of the film.
A flashback shows how Marcellus got injured in the ocean. He was hunting a crab when wolf eels attacked him. (We see Marcellus chowing down on marine wildlife in other flashbacks.) We learn that during his nighttime escapades, Marcellus sneaks into the mollusk tank to eat his fill (since he doesn’t enjoy the food provided by the aquarium).
There’s a single use of the f-word, uttered by Cameron. When Tova hears, she scolds him for cursing. Other crudities include nine uses of the s-word, as well as several uses each of “a–,” “a–hole” and “h—.” We hear the British profanity “bloody.”
God’s name gets misused about 35 times, twice paired with “d–n.” And Tova’s favorite swear seems to be “for God’s sake.” She says it a few times throughout the film, and even Cameron says it once. We hear a use of “jeez.”
A flashback shows Cameron’s mom smoking marijuana. We hear that she died of a drug overdose many years later.
People drink alcohol at bars and restaurants. Tova and Ethan share a bottle of wine. When Cameron drinks too much at a bar, Tova lets him crash on her couch.
Someone uses CBD oil.
Cameron’s parents, we learn, wanted to raise him. Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances resulted in his dad not being in the picture. And his mom, devastated, put Cameron into the care of his aunt, then a friend and finally “strangers” (likely foster care).
This instability made Cameron feel unwanted and unloved for most of his life. It’s why he’s something of a drifter. And it’s why he’s in Sowell Bay: He plans to hunt down his birth father and demand 18 years’ worth of child support.
Tova, we learn, had an argument with her son the night before he died. She never got the chance to reconcile with him, and she’s spent the last 30 years wondering if his death may have been her fault.
A woman talks about the grief she has experienced since her husband died. She expresses fear about moving in with her children, who live in a different city, far away from the friends she’s known most of her life.
Children who visit the aquarium do not treat it well. They touch, tap and even lick the glass tanks. One girl throws chewing gum on the floor and then steps on it. Cameron is particularly annoyed with that last bit, initially refusing to scrape kids’ gum off the floor.
Tova can sometimes be unnecessarily sharp with people who annoy her. One of the Knitwits distinguishes two women—both named Ruth—by color. Tova admonishes her friend for describing them as such, and the woman clarifies that she’s talking about the color of their hair, not their skin.
The Knitwits are, admittedly, quite the gossipers. Tova seems to despise this, but she also shares her opinions on what she hears with Marcellus. Ethan is also quite chatty, sometimes sharing news that isn’t his to share. Characters sometimes lie. Tova lies to a cop to get Cameron out of a parking ticket.
A flashback shows Cameron vomiting shortly after smelling his mother’s van—which she had been living out of and died in. The vehicle is filthy, covered in dirt, grime and dead bugs. Several flies buzz around inside, too.
OK, so here’s the thing: Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures is a really sweet movie. It’s cute, cozy and clever. Sally Field as Tova and Lewis Pullman as Cameron make for a really entertaining acting dynamic.
But—and there is a but—this movie just has so much swearing.
It’s really a shame, too, because aside from a few double entendres, there’s not a whole lot of other concerning content that occurs onscreen. This film was so close to being a great family film, but the creators just couldn’t remove themselves from Hollywood’s increasingly foul tongues.
Now, for families with teens, that might well be navigable. And I certainly think the themes of this movie are quite laudable. The way that Tova connects with Cameron, the way she shows him his value and worth—value and worth he never believed he had—is simply heartwarming. I imagine there’s many a grandmother out there who wishes she could connect with her grandson the same way that Tova connects with Cameron.
Marcellus had a point when he called humans “dull and blundering.” Certainly, the filmmakers here made a big blunder with all the foul language. But Marcellus also calls us “remarkably bright creatures,” and despite its problems, I still think this movie conveys that quite well.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
