Grade: B+
“11.22.63” is the latest original content to stream exclusively on Hulu.
It is an adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling novel about an English teacher who travels back in time to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The pilot of this miniseries, “The Rabbit Hole,” has a slow pace that ultimately proves to be rewarding.
James Franco stars as Jake Epping, a recently divorced high school English teacher. It seems like his only friends are a man in his GED class and a middle-aged diner owner named Al Templeton. Templeton lets Epping in on the secret that his diner contains a time portal to the year 1960.
Templeton tries to convince Epping to use the portal to prevent the assassination of Kennedy. Despite his reservations, Epping eventually travels through the portal to assume a new life in 1960 and shadow a man who may have been Lee Harvey Oswald’s handler.
Franco’s performance as Epping reminded me of his versatility. The last movie I saw him in was “Spring Breakers,” in which he delivers a gleefully psychotic performance. In the beginning of “11.22.63,” however, his performance expertly conveys how worn out and exhausted Epping has become.
Franco also has some funny moments. My favorites were his incredulous reactions to the very specific time travel rules Templeton tells him. Franco is an engaging lead and makes me interested to see how he will play this character in future episodes.
One of the advantages of television is that it gives the writers more time to develop a story.
Bridget Carpenter, a longtime fan of Stephen King’s work, adapted “11.22.63” into miniseries form. Carpenter gives this episode a leisurely pace: the first 31 minutes of “11.22.63” are pretty much exposition.
I’m not used to this rhythm of storytelling. The time travel rules, while interesting, are also a high concept that took some time to understand. I needed to get used to Carpenter’s pacing.
But once I did, I greatly enjoyed this episode. The large amounts of exposition just made the moment when Epping decided to try to stop the Kennedy assassination more compelling.
One interesting visual choice is that filmmakers decision to use more muted colors for the present day scenes when Epping is sad, and brighter colors for the 1960s scenes.
“11.22.63” reminded me a bit of Franco’s movie column for Indiewire. His column is structured as a conversation between him and his “reverse self” Semaj. It’s an eccentric concept, but once you get into its rhythm you find a lot of intelligent writing.
If you accept “11.22.63” on its own terms, then you’ll love it.
