This is a fascinating story and it is just too bad that the content in the violence and sex categories are so much as to prevent us from awarding our Dove Seal to it as a family-friendly film.
Saoirse Ronan stars as Melanie, a young woman that is taken over by an alien presence and her body is its host. However, Melanie is protective of her younger brother, Jamie, and boyfriend Jared (Max Irons), and she fights to emerge within her body despite the alien presence abiding in her simultaneously. She wants to keep Jamie and Jared protected and Wanderer, the alien presence, dislikes the fact that Melanie is losing her identity and Wanderer struggles to do the right thing. Ultimately Wanderer and Melanie work together as Wanderer becomes sympathetic to the humans, especially to a young man named Ian (Jake Abel) that she likes. There are humorous moments in the film when before they start working together Melanie and Wanderer go back and forth with arguments. The aliens have taken over almost all of Earth’s humans with a small resistance remaining.
In an interesting plot twist, the alien living in Melanie likes Ian, while Melanie likes Jared, so it becomes a bit of a love triangle, or maybe I should say a love square with four involved! With fine performances all around and an intelligently written script which focuses on the theme of love and kindness being two of the world’s most powerful forces, it is to be commended. The cinematography, especially of the desert scenes, is awesome. However, due to the content listing as previously mentioned, we cannot award the movie our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.
