Although Riz Ahmed gives it his all, Michael Pearce’s “Encounter” can’t seem to get a hold of itself; it goes through a genre identity crisis and never settles down.
An ex-marine, Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed), sees something that other people aren’t. He sees bugs—alien bugs that are taking control of people, one after the other. Since he can’t convince the world to watch out for these controlling parasites, he takes his two young sons to protect them from a global invasion. What the kids don’t know is that Malik kidnapped them from his estranged wife.
There is a similarity in its beginnings to “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” They decide to ignore the fact that people have indeed changed, and they squander around, for then in minutes, they also get captured by these creatures. In the case of “Encounter,” only one person knows about these “parasites.” Malik sees creatures coming from the walls, dangling from the ceilings, and feeding on the bodies of human beings for them to be the hosts.
Of course, it is obvious they are not real. These parasites don’t exist, and it is all in Malik’s mind. The first couple of minutes try to put you amid a man who is crazy, but is seeing something people aren’t, except it doesn’t. It is showing its true self, the story of a man with mental health who takes his sons for one last trip before he can’t be helped anymore. It is a sad tale on paper; however, the execution is poor.
We aren’t given many reasons to care for Malik, but we do care for his two kids. They are the charm of the movie and elevate it to a slight degree. Nevertheless, it all breaks apart when the “thrilling” aspects come into play. It seemed like the film had several parasites in control and it didn’t know what to do. We have violence, sci-fi, father-son relationships, coming-of-age, a take on mental health, and a thriller. It’s excessive. Pearce knows how to control his films, like he did in “Beast” (2015), and knows how to work with actors as these films have great performances.
Yet, in “Encounter” it feels like he wanted to go in every direction possible and put every idea he had on his head onto the screen. Not everything is bad or terrible, some aspects do work well. The sound design is immaculate, some shots are great, and I like the idea of the invasion of the body a lot. Still, it feels a bit childish. It might seem like a bold idea to shower the film with all these trinkets and quirks, except it isn’t. Its defense mechanism, or best aspect as a whole, are the performances.
Riz Ahmed is a great actor, and he rarely does any wrongdoings. Even in this film’s messy demeanor, he delivers a good performance; he takes a big mean chunk of the screen for himself and himself alone. This movie is worth seeing just for him because he is the main attraction. Even so, the two actors that play the kids also throw some punches. As mentioned before, Pearce knows how to work great with actors, which is evident in this picture.
Even though this is a structural mess and doesn’t know what it wants to be, the performances are still top-notch. You would like that its director takes control and not lose sight of what he wanted to say, but unfortunately, it never does. This wasn’t terrible nor the worst thing ever, albeit it is obvious that there wasn’t a clear vision. There were minor segments or ideas meshed one on top of the other. You wish it all came together, even with all its problems, except its ending is more so uninteresting.
This review of “Encounter” is written from its screening at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
