Abby (Ella Balinska) tries to save her sister from apparently terminal cancer while navigating a desperate trek after a helicopter crash in remote Georgia. Abby believes a cure might exist, and that conviction drives her choices and detours. Her only on-screen companion becomes a disembodied voice, performed by Rob Delaney, whose role is ambiguous and voice-only. Balinska delivers a commanding, vulnerable lead performance compared to classic sci-fi heroines. Delaney provides a strong vocal turn. The film contains many ideas and repeated narrative twists that distract from character development. Strong elements and performances are undermined by uneven execution and excessive rug-pulls. The Occupant releases digitally on 1 September.
Here is a survival sci-fi thriller in which Abby (Ella Balinska) is trying to save the life of her sister, who is stricken with apparently terminal cancer. Abby's tenacious sense that the possibility of a cure exists is the major guiding force behind a narrative that goes to some strange and unexpected places. For most of the run time, Abby is trying to return home from the site of a helicopter crash in the remote wilds of of Georgia, where the odds of survival are minimal
Delaney, best known for his work in comedies such as the excellent Catastrophe, gives an excellent voice-only performance, but it's Balinska's show, and she delivers the kind of turn that made Sigourney Weaver a legend in Alien: brave but vulnerable, strong yet struggling.
But it's a shame that both performers are stuck in a film that's not as sharply sketched as they are. It's a case of plentiful ideas and a plethora of rug pulls, but if you pull the rug out too many times, the audience ends up focused entirely on the rug, and losing attention on the character's journey.
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