★ 7 / 10
Intriguing Concept And Timely Message
shirlag
This movie and it's concept reminded me very much of a children's book I wrote and I wondered if the writer and makers of the film struggled as much as I did…
This movie and it's concept reminded me very much of a children's book I wrote and I wondered if the writer and makers of the film struggled as much as I did with how to tell a story with a message. I kept wondering if I had at least succeeded in telling an environmental sci-fi story without clobbering readers to death with my message. I also wondered if it's possible to tell the truth about a terrible situation without being all about the message.
I found the film interesting enough to stay with it to the end and I was never bored. There were times when it seemed so professionally done and I found the acting more than satisfying but at other times, it seemed a bit amateurish. Visually, the cinematography is good and it's an enjoyable film to watch. For it's message, I very much want people to see it. I agree with an earlier review that the narrative wasn't needed and didn't add anything to the story. There were some inconsistencies with the narrative that bothered me also. The story is told by a grandmother to her two young grandchildren. The narrative drops off and the viewer begins watching the actual story unfold. I wondered if the grandmother in her telling of events to the children, edited the story for parts where the two main characters of the film work out their sexual relationship.
On another note, I could see a correlation between the native music that opens the film and its theme. I assume the music was aboriginal but felt it could have been better at setting the mood and laying down some subliminal connections between the native people of Australia and the mystery surrounding the alien and the truth of her message.
All in all, I would recommend it. I wish it were more polished and thought out a bit better at the end but at the same time, it has beauty and worth few films bother to convey.
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★ 6 / 10
disappointing interpretation of interesting concepts
Snaug
This a movie which needs the story to carry itself: the scenery is nice but there is nothing much else to be seen. The story touches on a number of important…
This a movie which needs the story to carry itself: the scenery is nice but there is nothing much else to be seen. The story touches on a number of important social subjects such as protecting the environment and tolerance between cultures as well as SF subjects such as time-travel and alien visitors. Unfortunately it does not deliver on any of these subjects. It points out problems but never hints at any solution. And how do the aliens solve these problems? Well, they have a superior intellect and solve everything through their mind: time and space travel, energy production and everything else you can think of. I do not expect the makers to have all the answers, but just summoning up things which are wrong does not validate this movie.
The beginning was promising, but I ended up being disappointed in the end
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★ 6 / 10
Enormous potential, but misses by a whisker.
Sadim
This film had the potential to be a truly great flick .. but was let down badly by its 'sledgehammer' approach to environmental issues, and the appallingly bad…
This film had the potential to be a truly great flick .. but was let down badly by its 'sledgehammer' approach to environmental issues, and the appallingly bad acting in the closing scene.
As an armchair greenie, I was pleased to see a film that brought the issues of sustainable resource development to the forefront .. but the continuous hammering on a single issue became annoying.
There are, however, some excellent moments in the movie.
The concept of "You breathe the foul air" as a dismissive insult is particularly evocative, and the ever-changing scenery does far more to draw attention to Ullie Birve's 'alien-ness' as She than all of Hollywood's FX could ever do.
Unlike most science-fiction of the 90s, this was not a chance to show off technological whizz-bangery .. and Rolf de Heer has, with just a few camera angle & location changes, done a masterful job of showing us changed perceptions.
Syd Brisbane, another de Heer favourite, plays the role of The Man with just the right combination of wide-eyed wonderment and plodding suburban pig-headedness .. but there needed to be more made of his Saul-like conversion if his later, unseen role was to be believed.
Which brings us to the final scene.
Althea McGrath's narration was quietly brilliant throughout the film, and her on-camera acting in the final scene was OK, if not outstanding. But oh, her grandchildren ...
Chloe and Phoebe Ferguson got quite good reviews for their roles in another de Heer film, "The Quiet Room" .. but unfortunately in Epsilon, their minor (but crucial) roles as "Child" and "Child" in the campfire sequence don't work.
In fact, the closing scene makes the entire movie like the fire itself: it casts light, it crackles and flares .. but eventually the wooden performances in the dying embers of the film leave nothing but ashes .. and the mood that de Heer has tried to conjure up blows away like so much smoke.
Which is a pity because, as I began, this movie could have been so much more.
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