Answer, The |
USA • 2015 • 83m •
  • Directed by: Iqbal Ahmed. • Starring: Austin Hébert, Alexis Carra, David S. Lee, Adam Shapiro, Mark Deklin, Denisha Saunders, Cranston Johnson, Tyler Richardson, Chris Horne, Katherine Meixel, Terrence McGee, Mark Tyburski, Kasey Rising. • Music by: Erick DeVore.   Living a quiet life below the radar, BRIDD is thrown into chaos when he returns home and is attacked by masked men. Narrowly escaping, he and his feisty co-worker CHARLOTTE follow clues left by his parents to find out who's after him -- and why. In the process, he discovers something shocking about himself.
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Review:
The fall Virginia landscape was lovely as it was supposed to be but at the wrong time and place.
The plot was all over the place with side trails that could have led anywhere but none did. However that kept my attention as I thought they would all wrap at at some point but they didn't.
Some of the more obvious problems with the film:
Carra's attraction to Hébert never made sense and never felt real. This transient attractive woman would not connect with the loser in the mail room. It is that typical Hollywood fantasy where the dull guy gets the girl. In this case you have the feeling for much of the movie that she is sent to spy on him. I also had the feeling both from the characters and the actors that she was the much older woman with the younger guy. Turns out that it is hard to find out the real age of either of them. Since Carra took a break from her studies at Yale to tour with Fossee then that was likely 1999 meaning she is around 40. I think Hébert is younger but again hard to say. It doesn't really matter other than another film stereotype but again it leaves us wondering about Carra's motives.
It is never explained how the aliens finally find out about Hébert. How they know where he works and lives. He gets something in the mail which they must have been tracking but for 20 years? And he appears he gets the mail in the morning and has it that day, or no later the next, at work. Then when he goes back to the apartment, it's been ransacked, and his boss is dead with the very letter opener that would have their fingerprints on it. So how is the boss involved in this? He's not. Part of the reason we suspect Carra.
Not only is this done very fast but also by aliens who we never hear speak a word of English. And while we can figure out they would track his phone - they are already at his best friend's house when he calls. So in this 24 hour period, they figure out the best friend angle too. Carra's also very quick to point out some the legal issues like Hébert's last call to his friend. Once again making us suspect she wants something from him.
If the aliens want Hébert's blood then why set him up to go running and underground making him harder to find.
Carra wants to go back into the hotel room for her purse but they don't and we see the tracking device on the purse. How did that get there? Carra only met Hébert that morning and they go out and talk about their lives and go back to his apartment. Then they are attacked and rushed off. I'd have to go back and watch the attack again but I don't think any of the aliens touches her and even if they did - they are trying to kill them so why place a tracking device on them. Another reason we suspect her.
Lots of bad timing and little things like them going out for coffee and not trying to cover up their appearance. He is rather average but she is more memorable. Typical movie inappropriate time outs for emotional matters when they are being chased and people are dying. How did the father, who appeared to be in chains, record let alone send out the message? How did it find its way to him? Do aliens only have one code for two different pairs of handcuffs and two different neckbands? How does an alien who can dodge a bullet, not dodge a canister to the head? Why does he send her off to get the blood sample when they've both seen 3 or more aliens on the site - aliens who again move faster than a bullet? Why does he start correlating missing women and babies with the map on the wall? Has he memorized all crime statistics for the last 20 years or so?
Sadly the ending is not explained. That's great in many movies but in this one, there is a scene where they say they'll capture the aliens and that will explain everything but that never happens. He calls the police to tell them something but clearly that call is not connected with what happens. Who is getting treated in the ambulance? It might be the freed woman but I'm not going back to check. Is it the body of an alien? While still at the scene of the crime, she says to him "you got our life back". So somehow the massive police chase with all the evidence against them disappears at this crime scene? And they just walk away? What story did they give the police about how they were connected? These bodies don't appear to disappear so what do the authorities do with alien bodies? What happened to the alien in the car and the blood samples? We have to assume Hébert destroyed the blood sample as he was after that. Did he hide the bodies and if so how does he explain the crashed car with the bullet hole and what will almost certainly be tested as non-human blood? Ah-h-h-h-h
Yet for all of that I enjoyed watching it. I think it was the refreshing faces and landscape that attracted me and my anticipation of where the plot could have been going but never did.
If you have a free night, which we all do with self-isolation, then it is worth the time to watch it.
Review by moorek from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database