A sweet non-linear multi-generational story of life… trapped in a 100-minute screen saver.

Somewhere in the Northeastern United States, a tract of land becomes the site of a new house, one destined to become a home for many generations. The family of a man (Gwilym Lee) obsessed with flight; an inventor (David Fynn) and his pinup wife (Ophelia Lovibond); a soldier (Paul Bettany) and his pregnant wife (Kelly Reilly); an aspiring artist (Tom Hanks) and his best girl (Robin Wright). These and others share a connection with this location, some more closely than others, lifetimes where children were born, elders have died, and each new resident imagines their future possibilities — these are their stories. Dunn-dunn!

The idea of “Here” began as a 6-page comic in 1989 before being expanded into a 300+ page graphic novel by Richard McGuire published in 2014, intended to take advantage of the medium with overlapping panels in the same space across different eras, kind of a scrapbook time machine… or an interdimensional window from the series “Fringe.” Director Robert Zemeckis along with Eric Roth adapted the concept into a screenplay to mimic this idea, pooling together much of his Forrest Gump team, including members of the old cast. To pull it off, everything would have to be meticulously planned, pushing the boundaries of graphic imagery, costuming, and de-aging software to create effects believable enough to engross audiences. Unfortunately, the theatrical trailers make the film look more like an overlong gimmick than a cohesive narrative: “See the new movie ‘Here,’ filmed in Scrapbook-Vision!” What remains is whether moviegoers will ask the same question that reportedly drove the author to create his original work: “Why did I come in here again?”

It takes almost half the film before the narrative threads begin to intersect in interesting ways, which is already far too long for modern audiences to bother caring about a single character let alone an ensemble cast. For more dedicated and/or sophisticated cinephiles, there’s almost too much going on, much of it seemingly random for longer than it needs to be. Modern digital comic books work a bit like this presentation, but sequential art by definition suggests linear storytelling unless a reader is already committed. A helpful narrative trick might have been making the home itself a character, similar to the “Baby” episode of “Supernatural” (Season 11, Episode 4), but for the purposes of this film, it’s the all-seeing Eye of Sauron… except he doesn’t care what’s happening any more than the viewers (probably still looking for his ring). This renders the core story — read: the parts with the biggest name actors — to about an hour of broken narrative and 40+ minutes of padding, which doesn’t make for a great experience… not to mention the distractingly gimmicky overlapping panels making the entire movie feel like watching a mid-1990s screen saver. “Filmed in Video-Toaster-Vision!”

Due to the restrictive POV, there’s also a sense of missing location; where is this all supposed to be happening that Native Americans, revolutionaries, and entrepreneurs have put down roots? The best clue is the inclusion of William Franklin (Daniel Betts), the last royal governor of New Jersey and illegitimate son of Ben Franklin (Keith Bartlett). Those parts suggest the film’s physical location might be across the street from the Proprietary House in Perth Amboy, New Jersey; a Google maps search shows there’s even a similar home with a bay window in about the same spot suggested in the film. The four-story mansion prominently shown outside, however, doesn’t otherwise much look like the historical building — in fact, the film version eerily resembles the Hilltop mansion from “The Walking Dead.” Sounds like someone on the production team successfully slipped an Easter egg into the entire film — actual zombies could have been fun, too — but that’s no less ludicrous than the meteor destroying the dinosaurs landing in New Jersey.

There’s a rewarding experience somewhere in all of this, and Paul Bettany makes the most of his screentime to outshine the rest of the cast. While the experiment itself is laudable, the finished film falls short of the lofty goal it set for itself. Maybe next time someone can build the idea into the story rather than merely the mechanism used to tell it… like that sci-fi television series “Fringe” I told you about. You should definitely watch that.

Here is rated PG-13 for thematic material, some suggestive material, brief strong language, smoking, and forgetting where you put your car keys when leaving the cinema.

Two skull recommendation out of four.