The End of Oak Street movie review: What would happen if dinosaurs entered our neighbourhood

Stills from The End of Oak Street. Pics via YouTube

What if you woke up one morning to discover that your quiet suburban neighbourhood had been transported millions of years into the past? No fancy laboratory, no billionaire-owned dinosaur park and definitely no contingency plan. Just your house, your neighbours, your family and a whole lot of prehistoric creatures waiting outside. That is the wonderfully bonkers premise of The End of Oak Street. Directed by David Robert Mitchell, whom Anne Hathaway waited eight years to get a call from.

Set in the 1980s, the film begins with the kind of idyllic suburban family day that feels straight out of a vintage American postcard. Denise (Anne Hathaway), secretly working on a novel, notices an ancient-looking plant that seems to have appeared almost overnight. Her investigation reveals that it belongs to a species believed to have disappeared roughly 200 million years ago. Soon, strange phenomena begin escalating before Oak Street is effectively ripped out of its own time and deposited into a prehistoric world. Unlike Jurassic Park, where humans bring dinosaurs into their world, The End of Oak Street flips the idea on its head. There are no trained soldiers or superheroic scientists. The residents are ordinary people figuring out how to barricade doors, find food and protect their children while trying to understand what has happened.

The dinosaurs themselves are one of the film's biggest strengths. They feel like animals rather than movie monsters, which makes several attacks genuinely unnerving. The film also knows when to have fun. The humour lands without constantly undercutting the danger, and some of the stranger dinosaur encounters provide much-needed comic relief amid the chaos.

Denise is also refreshingly far removed from the stereotypical 1980s housewife. She is involved in protecting the home, makes decisions under pressure and refuses to accept that certain jobs belong only to her husband. Her attitude is summed up when she essentially tells Greg (Ewan McGregor) that whatever he can do, she can do too, perhaps better.

Greg gets his own reckoning. Denise is initially embarrassed by his job as a pizza delivery driver, but that very job eventually saves him in the end. The children aren't simply along for the ride either. Every character has a wonderful character arc by the end of the film. Even Starbuck, the family dog, gets a proper hero moment.

And yes, the film is ruthless. People die, families are torn apart. Denise's grief becomes the emotional turning point that makes her realise just how much she still loves her family.

The End of Oak Street isn't trying to reinvent dinosaur cinema. It is doing something arguably more enjoyable - taking a completely ridiculous premise and asking, "What would normal people actually do?" The answer is messy, frightening, occasionally hilarious and surprisingly emotional.

It may not have the wonder of the Jurassic franchise or the time-travel cleverness of Back to the Future, but it has enough personality, suspense and heart to make this prehistoric detour worth taking.