'The End Of Oak Street' A Review

The End Of Oak Street is a scifi flick about a neighborhood in the 80's that gets transported back to the pre-historic era. A family- Denise(Anne Hathaway), Greg(Ewan McGregor), Audrey(Maisy Stella), and Brian(Christian Convery) deal with emotional baggage as they attempt to survive.

I like Anne Hathaway but this is the fourth feature she's appeared in in 2026, with one more still to go. This is too much Hathaway. She could give an incredible performance and I don't know if it'd register simply because she has been to ever present in the release schedule this year. McGregor fairs slightly better but they as well as Stella and Convery are burdened with a confused script and clashing tones. The movie doesn't know what it wants to be- is it a family drama wrapped in a scifi conceit, is it a nostalgic family adventure a la Spielberg, is it commentary wrapped in a blockbuster? It's unclear and signals at all those achieving none.

Visually the film is uneven, the production design is pretty flawless(although there seems no reason to set it in 1982 other than as nostalgia bait) but the CGI is surprisingly uneven. A scene involving an injury to McGregor's character is particularly cartoonish and looks cheap. It's a diverting enough summer flick if you've already seen The Odyssey and Spider-Man but it's kind of a stunningly benign third feature from writer/director David Robert Mitchell.

Overwrought familial melodrama hamstrings what this should be(and sometimes is)- fun.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.