Meanwhile on Earth (15) |Close-Up Film Review

This is a first live action film from French animation film maker Jérémy Clapin – although it does have an animation element. 

The story at first sounds like science fiction.  Elsa (Megan Northam) is mourning the loss of her brother Franck, an astronaut, who three years earlier was lost in space on a mission.   They were very close. She and her younger brother work at a care facility for elders run by her mother but her thoughts are always with Franck.  She fantasises about them flying together through space  – Clapin uses his animation skills for this aspect of the film.

Then one day she seems to hear her brother speaking to her from somewhere in the universe.   Shortly afterwards another voice in her head (Dimitri Doré) tells her that her brother can be restored to earth.  But first she has to do something for her mysterious informant.  The something turns out to be an instruction to lure five people to a certain part of a nearby forest, so that the unknown entity can take over their bodies.  Similar to Invasion of the Bodysnatchers really. The procedure also involves cutting down a tree. 

Desperate to be reunited with Franck, Elsa recruits her friend Augustin (Nicolas Avinée) and his colleague, who has a power saw.  One of the entities takes over Augustin’s body but rejects the other as a result of an unpleasant and rather unnecessary scene of violence.  Elsa is then left with the problem of finding four more victims

If you’re a sci-fi fan you’ll want to know what the aliens do in their new bodies and does Franck come back?  But you’ll be disappointed.  This isn’t about that but about Elsa’s moral dilemma of whose lives is she going to sacrifice? –  a study of mourning and an examination of the question, to what lengths would someone go if they could by their actions bring back a lost loved one?

The drama focusses almost entirely on Northam as the grieving Elsa and she is very good indeed    But it’s frustrating not to be given at least some idea of what the invaders from outer space intend to do with their earthly bodies.

Meanwhile on Earth is now available on digital platforms