Cut to the chase: I loved it.  I liked the book a lot when I read it a couple of years ago, after a recommendation from my sister. Initially, I was taken aback to discover the book featured an octopus as a main character, but I trust Barbara’s judgement, so I got a copy and dove in.

The book has both heart and brains, although it might rely too heavily on a long-shot coincidence for its resolution. Still, I admit it was emotionally satisfying. The story does a great job of exploring the emptiness created by loss of loved ones and the ways people try (or don’t) to fill up that void.

The movie also leaned into that theme of loss versus connection in a way that felt natural and realistic. In exploring the secondary theme of the meaning of “home,” I felt the movie actually did a slightly better job than the book. (However, I read the book at least two years ago and I’m not a person who remembers every detail of a story.)

A lot of the movie’s resonance is due to the strong performances by all of the cast. Sally Field reminds us why she has won all those acting awards, including a couple of Oscars. She sinks into the role of Tova, the “cleaning lady” at the aquarium where Marcellus, the octopus, unhappily resides. She does the job as a way to cope with the loss of both her husband and her only son. Field is great at good-hearted grumpy. Her connection with Marcellus is both convincing and heart-breaking. For a scene near the end where Tova makes a shattering connection, the camera focuses tightly on her face and she lets the viewer read every single moment of the emotions it brings. It’s a tour-de-force performance.

Lewis Pullman is almost equally effective as a young man with a good heart but a soul lost in the cosmos due to the psychic wounds of his father’s desertion and his mother’s tragic life and death. His search for his missing father brings him to Tova’s home town.  A job at the aquarium pushes them into conflict.

With all this, I think Albert Molina’s work as the voice of Marcellus is underrated. His voicing gives the octopus a real and fascinating point of view along with emotional depth.

The direction and editing kept the story moving along at a snappy pace that still allowed time for secondary characters to provide interesting depth.

Visually, the film pays a lot of attention to the environmental details and surface textures – water tracks left by Marcellus, the wood paneling in Tova’s house, uneven planks on the dock, and the view across the water. It adds immediacy to the feeling of being in the story.

The nearly two-hour running time passed quickly with almost no “boring sections.” I was hooked from the very start and couldn’t look away until the end!