Alien Visitor

I'll try, but this is a very unique film with an outstanding cast. It really needs to be seen. Let's just say that had Nick Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth worked this well back in 1976 it would be known today for content rather than David Bowie.

A&E is showing Epsilon under the title Alien Visitor late at night with a few little censorship blurs to hide Ullie Birve's brief nudity, but if they put it up in prime time unmasked for all the world to see I'll bet they wouldn't get one nasty letter.

The plot is similar to TMWFTE or Starman or a dozen episodes of a dozen sci-fi TV shows. A woman from the star (or perhaps planet - we never really know) Epsilon drops in on a lad hiking out in the Australian outback unexpectedly and they fall for each other, but that's where comparisons to most alien visitor plots fade away.

The visitor (Birve) is not happy to be stuck on Earth, a planet reviled throughout the universe for its inhabitants' inability to see their inevitable self-destruction. The Earthling (Syd Brisbane) is just an easygoing guy living a simple life and doesn't really register the reason for her distain. Especially after she illustrates her point by jumping him around on his own planet in the wink of an eye and without even the celestial special effect of a Star Trek transporter.

Director Rolf de Heer uses fixed camera positions to record time passing rapidly mixed with gentle cuts into long fluid pans that effortlessly move the viewer with the main characters as they explore the Earth. It is a wondrous device, only possible in a movie, and we immediately share the Earthling's sense of amazement at the visitor's power over nature's physical laws but also learn with him that magic is the least important aspect of their encounter.

The underlying ecological discourse between the two hasn't lost one bit of relevancy since the film was made in 1995. If anything, the message has become more urgent in the 21st century.

Humans are killing the Earth and something must be done about it - by humans.

Epsilon is beautifully edited and shot by Tania Nehme and Tony Clark. Director Rolf de Heer also played with sci-fi in Encounter at Raven's Gate (1988).

Personally, I'm buying the DVD!

The film is a mix of things that shouldn't work but many do. Despite it's unity of style--virtually every scene is shot exactly the same way, the two leads are so good and work so well together that the fact it's a talkfest kinda' doesn't matter, and the fact that it's best element is the relationships/love that develops between sexy alien and dorky earth man builds an emotional pull probably because it's all a film about the two of them. Each actor is well cast and couldn't be better, she seems convincingly superior and times, he seems doltish but later quite handsome and rather deep==these attributes being displayed at the perfect moments. We never learn the names of either character in the film--a device that works. The film is full of devices, some pretty distracting.

The film is very much like a stage play, even a planetarium show, only the multiple locations and constant time-lapsing make it purely a movie at the same time. The style is unique enough to work much of the time.

Being science fiction, it will naturally draw some smart ass retorts and deserves some of them, but the film is about differing world views, the details of those worlds may be wrong at times, but it's really just a framework, you can almost say it's about the differences between men and women and how they can work for and against each other.

What fails is the filmmakers "hug a tree/save the earth" message. For a film that becomes so much about two people's relationship to then try to jump the a broad view "issue" it's trying to sell fails. It has to. Stories are at their best when we relate specifically to individuals, not when they try to boil down individuals into groups and causes.

The framing device of the movie of the whole story being told round a campfire to two kids leads to a clunky final scene selling the tree hugger message. Now don't get me wrong I'm all for tree hugging but it's like having too much candy all at once. Even the right message and idea can be delivered in the wrong way.

Again though this is a big though minor problem compared to what the two actors do and the parts they play. The film credits them and the crew with coming up with additional script material--a rare credit to see from a writer director.

At times fascinating and moving at less times a bit the same and ham handed in it's message. Still worth a look and memorable. Good music score helps too.

Film has full frontal female nudity right at the start, rather than in a key love scene later, it feels like a commercial decision to do it this way.

Simplistic, pragmatic, tedious and unforgiveably boring. It's very difficult to make a good movie out of a conversation - which is really all this is. I kept waiting for there to be some real action. Never happened. Don't even bother with this one unless you like pretty scenery and nothing else.

The basic vision of this movie struck me -- and still strikes me -- as an excellent starting point. The cinematography is marvelous and the devotion to environmental and societal questions is admirable. Even without any answers, the importance of the questions the film highlights gives it validity. Unfortunately, the writing and direction left huge holes in the logical development of "She" as an alien character. "The Man" is required to fulfill each of "She's" requirements in thought pattern and relationship development. Unfortunately "She" violates every premise she, herself, dictates. Even "The Man's" most notable leaps in understanding are insulted and demeaned by the alien visitor. When "She" stoops beneath the level of Earth human cruelty by destroying "The Man's" favorite tree (with which he had "shared blood") every supposed superiority of the proposed advanced galactic peoples is totally eradicated. The lesson seems to be that trying to communicate with a less developed individual will destroy your own more delicate feelings and understandings. What could have been a thought provoking challenge to our society wound up being a cheap grouping of pot-shots taken at civilization by childish, dissatisfied, spoiled whiners.

Got a screed about all of mankind's faults? Can't get anyone to pay attention, however, because we've heard it all a thousand times before? Even fellow greenies react to it with a half hearted, "right on" (while suppressing a yawn.) Get a job on a sci-fi movie, and put those same words into the mouth of a contemptuous alien. Suddenly people think the words have become profound and thought provoking. I'm starting to understand how "The Day the Earth Stood Still" got an 8/10.