Two brothers embark on a journey with their father, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat.
Riz Ahmed first came onto my radar in 2016’s “Jason Bourne” and then in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” but it was his mesmerizing performance in 2019’s “Sound of Metal” that really made me sit up and take notice. Onscreen, even in films that are not of great caliber (cough “Venom” cough), he still radiates charisma, and his latest thriller, “Encounter,” is no different.
Here, he plays Malik Khan, a highly decorated ex-Marine Corps veteran who believes the earth is being taken over by minuscule aliens that only he can see. Having just got out of a two-year prison sentence after being dishonorably discharged for beating up his commanding officer, he sneaks into his ex-wife’s farmhouse in the middle of the night, ties her and her husband up and locks them in the barn, and takes his two young sons, Jay and Bobby (Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada) on a surprise road trip.
Along the way, he informs them that the earth is being invaded by aliens and he is on a top-secret mission to take them to a covert base in the Nevada desert where they are working on an antidote to combat the invasive aliens. He tells his boys he can tell if someone is infected by looking into their eyes but when a national manhunt for him and his two sons commences, Malik slowly begins to realize there are no aliens and that everything he told his boys is all a figment of his imagination.
In only his second feature-length film, director Michael Pearce already appears to be at a crossroads. The first half of the movie infuses sci-fi elements that promise a great story but the last half descends into conventional drama inherent in stories that deal with soldiers and PTSD. Malik’s two sons slowly begin to see through the lies he is telling them, and although he believes them to be real, his boys, as well as the audience, gradually differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The main issue with the film is that it wants the best of both worlds, to successfully encompass sci-fi and drama but the two elements are as far removed from each other and don’t always play well together. Occasionally, a movie comes along that infuses both triumphantly, Robert Zemeckis’ “Contact,” Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” and “The Matrix,” but “Encounter” backfires as it tricks its audience into believing it is one genre when in reality, it is the complete opposite. And that deception leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
The one saving grace is Riz Ahmed. You truly believe he believes the thoughts in his head, that the earth is under attack by aliens that only he can see, and early on in the film, he is stopped by a police officer and as the scene progresses, the camera moves in on his eyes and we see small, horrifying creatures emerge from his eyeballs and his face becomes distorted so Malik knocks him out but when he looks down at him, his face appears normal. The scene is carefully crafted so we don’t know if he’s imagining things or if the aliens are manipulating him.
The two young actors who play Malik’s sons, Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada, are fine in their respective roles but at times, the characters feel forced, almost like they reached their emotional periphery but were pushed beyond them, occasionally resulting in lackluster line delivery and less-than-stellar performances. Octavia Spencer, as Malik’s parole officer Hattie, is probably the weakest character in the film, and while undoubtedly an excellent actor, she just feels insignificant to the overall story and is totally unnecessary.
In the end, “Encounter” tries to tackle the effects PTSD has on those who served in the military but it never achieves its desired result. Initially, it wants you to believe that the story is rooted in sci-fi so you settle down with that mindset but then it turns into a drama, and at this point, the narrative fails on both accounts. It deteriorates because we learn that the sci-fi elements introduced, are a figment of Malik’s imagination, while the dramatic aspects succumb to the customary tropes associated with dramas of this ilk. In other words, neither the sci-fi nor dramatic characteristics are particularly interesting, once they detach from each other. Personally, I would have preferred to see Malik trying to save his sons from an alien invasion, it just sounds more intriguing.
In Select Theaters Friday, December 3rd, and on Amazon Prime Video Friday, December 10th
