
Here follows Richard Young from his teenage years into old age as he lives in one New Jersey house with Margaret, his wife, and their family. The camera stays in one corner while time jumps from prehistoric land to the early 2020s. Richard gives up his dream of becoming an artist, works as an insurance salesman, and struggles with money, aging, illness, and the fear that life has passed him by. The film has a gentle but sad tone. The same room holds family arguments, births, deaths, jokes, and memories.
The film includes a short modern story about a black family whose parents teach their teenage son how to act during a traffic stop because a white officer might react badly. That scene presents racial danger in policing as a real part of the family’s life. The film also shows an Indigenous couple before the house exists, and it uses Margaret’s lost career hopes and anger at home life to question older marriage roles. These points are clear but limited, while the main story stays focused on time, family duty, missed chances, marriage, illness, and aging.
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Was our 30% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Here.
Woke representation / casting
Not present. The main Young family is white, but the film also includes an Indigenous couple and a black family in brief time periods. The casting fits the modern setting and the historical scenes, and the film does not make diversity a stated casting message.
0%
Woke political dialogue
The Harris parents give their Black teenage son a detailed lesson about what to say and do during a police stop. The speech warns that a white officer may react badly, so the boy must show his hands and explain every move. Margaret also compares old marriage with dictatorship and modern marriage with democracy. These points are clear, but they appear in short scenes and do not control the whole movie.
30%
Identity-driven story themes
The film gives a modern black family a short story about the danger of a police stop. The parents connect that danger to race and ask their son to act carefully around a white officer. The film also shows an Indigenous couple before the house exists, but it does not build a larger political story around them. The main plot remains about time, family duty, missed chances, marriage, illness, and aging.
27%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Margaret’s lost plan to attend law school and her frustration with life in her in-laws’ home are part of the main story. Margaret says a marriage should allow personal space and a voice for each partner. Richard often acts as the cautious husband who delays change and resists her wishes. The film presents this as a painful family problem, not a broad attack on men, faith, capitalism, or Western institutions.
24%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film expands Richard McGuire’s graphic novel into a longer family story. No reliable report shows an identity-driven rewrite of a known character, a real person, or the source’s canon.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
One review called the Harris family’s police brutality and racism speech a forced lecture and compared it to a 2020 social-media feed. That was an isolated complaint and did not become a wider anti-woke campaign. The X research pass found no anti-woke complaints, and most reviews focused on the film’s camera, aging effects, and story.
6%
Creator track record context
Robert Zemeckis has mild Democratic and women-in-Hollywood context but no strong identity-activist pattern. Eric Roth and Richard McGuire show little activist work. Casting director Lucy Bevan has supported on-screen diversity and disability representation. The other cached crew profiles are mostly low or quiet. The team context is mild and does not show a strong identity-driven pattern.
18%
Production