In Black Mirror season 6, episode 5, titled Demon 79, Paapa Essiedu played a demonic agent from hell summoned by a South Asian woman who had to make three sacrifices to free the demon. Now, in Peacock’s comedy film Genie, he is playing the central protagonist, Bernard Bottle, who accidentally summons a genie. Now he has to make three wishes, which will be able to bring his life back on track. Genie is a feel-good comedy film with a narrative as pleasant and cute as Melissa McCarthy. The narrative follows Bernard, an exploited employee working a taxing job who is unable to give some quality time to his family. This leads his wife to decide to take a break from her husband. However, one day a frustrated Bernard rubs an old jewelry box, and an ancient genie (played by Melissa McCarthy) emerges from it. Now, Bernard would have to make three wishes to free the genie and let her go back to that small jewelry box.
On the surface, Genie is a very simple and feel-good holiday film, but deep beneath it talks about unconditional love, friendship, and freedom. Let’s see how things unfolded in the narrative of Genie.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
On a beautiful evening, when it was Bernard’s daughter Eve’s birthday, Bernard was supposed to reach home on time to take his family out to celebrate her birthday. But the job pressure was too much for Bernard to take. Even though he was able to make time and was about to leave the office, his boss, Flaxman, kept him engaged. Consequently, Bernard was late for the birthday celebration, and even though he came back home and wished his daughter a happy birthday, he forgot to buy her a birthday gift. Bernard’s wife, Julie, was frustrated, as this was not the first time this had happened. Bernard had also missed previous holidays due to his work pressure, so she decided to take a break from her husband. She told Bernard that she would take her daughter to her mother’s home and stay there for a while until Bernard decided to make things right.
The next day, when Julie and Eve left Bernard at his home, he went to the office to talk about the work pressure with Flaxman; however, his boss didn’t pay much attention to his problem, and instead of cooperating with him, he fired Bernard. Stressed and depressed, Bernard came back home and accidentally rubbed an old jewelry box. Suddenly, a beam of light came out of the box, and a genie appeared in front of him. Initially, Bernard was reluctant to believe that it was a genie. Still, after the genie showed him some magic tricks, he finally believed that the woman, who’d suddenly popped out of nowhere at his home, was indeed an ancient genie locked in that jewelry box.
The genie named Flora described the rules, which were pretty standard as Bernard would have to make three wishes. Bernard grabbed the chance and wished to have his family back at his home, but Flora told him that she couldn’t change people’s minds. Therefore, they decided that they would try to encourage circumstances so that Julie and Eve would eventually change their minds and agree to return to Bernard.
Did Bernard Manage To Return The Mona Lisa?
Bernard took Flora outside and showed her around. They did some adventurous things, like using Flora’s powers to mess with Bernard’s family, changing his entire house decor, and accidentally stealing the Mona Lisa to decorate his house. On this voyage, the museum curators found out about the theft and informed the police. Meanwhile, Bernard managed to bring his wife and child home one evening. But, even though Flora made the environment romantic, Julie didn’t want to make any romantic moves. Instead, she wanted Eve to spend Christmas nights separately at each of her parents’ houses. This didn’t make Bernard happy, but he just let it go. After Julie left, Flora went to watch a Tom Cruise film in the theater, while Bernard found that his house had caught fire. As he called the fire brigade, the firefighters found the Mona Lisa painting in his room. As a result, Bernard was arrested for theft and brought into custody. There he sought Flora’s help to get out of the mess, and Flora, with the help of her magic trick, exchanged the painting with the jersey of Messi, saving Bernard from further punishment.
What Were The Three Wishes Bernard Made?
Bernard realized that no matter how much he tried, he would not be able to change Julie’s mind like magic. He knew it would take time, and he accepted that. However, Julie wanted Eve to spend the holidays with Bernard, and seeing her husband give time to her daughter made her immensely happy. Bernard, Eve, and Flora had some magical fun by having a ride on a magical carpet. But all the fun had to come to an end when it was time for Bernard to say goodbye to his best friend, Flora.
Flora reminded him of the three wishes that were still left on his list. But for that, the genie had to go, as only after that would Bernard realize what he wanted. Flora didn’t want to leave Bernard, as, despite having magical powers, at the end of the day, she was not free. After going back, she would be locked up in a small box all over again, devoid of all the fun and adventure she experienced in New York City with Bernard. Even though she was sad that her time was over, she kept Bernard’s desires in mind. Before going back to the box, she handed him a note containing a number, which would come in handy for Bernard.
After he bid farewell to Flora, he came back to his apartment and discussed the number with his doorman, Lenny, who had a huge crush on Flora. After quite a bit of brainstorming, Bernard realized that this number was the date and time of Eve’s birthday evening when things first went wrong in his life. Bernard grabbed the chance and wished to travel back in time to that day. He came back to that night, and left the office early, resigning from his job, and arrived home right on time. He took his family to dinner, where he made his second wish for Eve to have her favorite dish. After the night went amazing, there were no differences between Bernard and Julie, who ultimately ended up happy together.
Did Flora Return?
Flora was extremely fond of Bernard, as he was the most unique person she had ever seen. Being a genie, she had only witnessed greed, selfishness, and hatred, but for the first time, she saw someone as selfless as Bernard. After Bernard made his first two wishes, now it was time for his third wish to come true. For his third wish, he demanded to give Flora the life of a regular human being, prompting her to leave her boring life as a genie. In the concluding moments of the film, we saw Bernard meet his friend Lenny, who had opened a pizzeria, and there he worked with his wife, who was none other than Flora. As Flora was brought back to life, both Bernard and she remained grateful to each other, and their beautiful friendship persisted.
