Mark Reviews Movies: ENCOUNTER

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 2, 2021

At first, Joe Barton and director Michael Pearce's screenplay for Encounter is about one thing. Then, it is suddenly and definitively about another. It all makes sense, as the shift is entirely about one character's perspective of reality, but the filmmakers never give either mode a chance to develop before the plot sets things on auto-pilot.

The initial belief here is that a microscopic alien lifeform has invaded Earth. The premise is initially presented by way of a haunting montage of a cosmic event—a meteor traveling through the silence of space—that turns into a series of earthly ones—the rock breaks through the atmosphere (causing dogs to bark and setting off car alarms), crashes, and the food chain of insects spreads the parasite to mosquitoes. In retrospect, the objective perspective of this prologue is a bit of a cheat (or more), but that doesn't affect its impact or the eerie tone of invisible doom the sequence quickly establishes.

Malik (Riz Ahmed), a Marine veteran who's living out of a motel room, thinks he understands what has happened and is happening to life on the planet. He has plenty of documents, explaining how these microscopic organisms can control the behavior of people they have infected, and since bugs are the main cause of transmission to humans, he keeps cans of insecticide on him at all times, spraying any infestation he sees and his body whenever he's about to go outside.

Meanwhile, Malik's sons, elder Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and younger Bobby (Aditya Geddada), are living with their mother (played by Janina Gavankar) and her boyfriend (played by Keith Szarabajka). Jay misses his father, who writes regular letters to the boy, explaining that he's away on an important mission.

One night, though, Malik surprises his sons, announces that he's taking them on a road trip, and hurries them into his car and on to the highway. It's not just a vacation, he eventually tells them. It's a rescue mission, since their mother has been infected by the alien parasite.

To explain much more of the plot might be unfair if the movie attempted more than to simply play a game with these characters, the premise, and the audience. Initially, the setup is intriguing, both as a low-key piece of science-fiction—about trying to survive an unseen extraterrestrial invasion—and as the story of this father and these sons—attempting to maintain some sense of normalcy amidst their long separation and the threat they cannot see. Ahmed, adopting a vague Southern-ish drawl, is caring and determined, often prone to frustration, and the child actors—with Chauhan as a kid forced into beyond-his-years maturity and Geddada as the amusing comic relief—are quite good, too.

Eventually, none of this—the character of Malik as we first understand him, the father-child relationships, the whole gimmick of the plot—matters. There's a twist here—a sudden realization of what Malik is actually doing—that transforms the narrative, these characters, and the whole thrust of the plot.

There's still a sense of menace to it, when Hattie (a woefully underused Octavia Spencer, whose character ends up along for the ride of a chase), a law enforcement agent, learns of Malik's plan and informs the feds. They're convinced the real threat is Malik.

With the first premise scuttled, Pearce and Barton don't quite know what to do with this newly divulged information, and the tone of the central relationship here, as well as the whole of the movie itself, strains and jostles around to accommodate whatever effect the filmmakers want in the moment. Malik is a sympathetic man, wounded and haunted by demons in one moment, and he is that potential threat in the next.

We never know where the character stands, which makes for some tension—of the discomfortingly exploitative kind, considering what the suspicion and insinuation of Malik's intentions actually mean. It becomes a manipulation game, excused by a character's state of mind (which also feels like exploitation). Eventually, the screenwriters more or less give up on that question, sending a series of threats after Malik and his sons to distract from the uncomfortable possibilities and, more to the point, keep the plot moving. There are the cops, obviously, led by a cold-hearted federal agent (played by Rory Cochrane), and there's also a random group of militiamen, who don't take too kindly to Malik.

Encounter isn't a messy movie, since everything is so straightforward and simplified at every turn. In terms of plot and characters and tone, it is a gravely inconsistent one.

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