Saturday, July 27, 2024

Fantasia ’24: The Silent Planet

If he is the only man on this world and she is the only woman, they must either be murderers or terrorists (or possibly guilty of “political crimes”). In the future, those are the only reasons for their exile on a distant uninhabited planet. Frankly, they never would have sent Niyya had they known Theodore was still alive. Given the state of his health, mental and physical, he probably will not be for long. The question is whether they will work together or tear each other apart during the time they cohabitate penal colony planet #384 in Jeffrey St. Jules’ The Silent Planet, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival.

This lonely planet has at least driven Theodore half-crazy, if not fully so. He is convinced the mysterious sentient-like gasses literally create hallucinations and plant false memories. From what viewers see, he might be right, or alternatively, he is just nuts. One day he carves his embedded tracker monitor out of his shoulder, so he can finally sleep in. As a result, the systems assume he is dead, so the recently convicted Niyya lands to replace him mining rare galactic minerals.

At first, Theodore and Niyya are leery of each other, which quickly segues into overt hostility. However, when the realization they are literally the only two people on the planet sets in, they try to make nice. However, Theodore’s sudden flashes of memory leads Niyya to suspect their lives are intertwined in a notoriously nasty way. Yet, the coincidence of them both ending up in the same isolated planet seems highly unlikely to Theodore, so he assumes the gas is toying with them.

Frankly,
Silent Planet is a lot like a whole lot of other films. Unfortunately, this silent planet is usually also rather slow going. St. Jules clearly assumes Niyya’s backstory as the adopted daughter of Oe parents, an alien race meant to represent and generate sympathy for undocumented/illegal migrants, adds depth to the story. Unfortunately, every Oe flashback is so clumsily didactic, they sabotage everything that works in the film.

Mostly, that means they leave Elias Koteas hanging, even though the way he portrays Theodore piecing together his fractured memories is by far the best thing going for this film. He compellingly depicts the destruction wrought by guilt and isolation, while the paranoia he stokes regarding the nature of the planet is a nice bonus.

Unfortunately, Brianna Middleton falls somewhat flat as his partner in this two-hander. Obviously, that is a problem. Again, her backstory should take a great deal of the blame. It is just hard to believe she was part of a family of aliens from a mid-1970s episode of
Doctor Who.

Weirdly, aside from its migrant advocacy
The Silent Planet is one of the least politically engaged dystopian films ever made. Sure, they refer to “political crimes,” but the film never really addresses issues of free expression, surveillance, or thought crimes. It is pretty much a single-issue dystopia, focusing on interstellar migration. That preoccupation does not serve the film’s best interests, or those of Koteas, whose work is quite memorable. Not good enough to recommend, The Silent Planet had its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia.