Hollywood News Source got an advanced screening of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” a new film starring Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning. The film is scheduled for release September 21. Check out our thoughts on the film below!
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Paul Giamatti
Genres: Drama
Director: Reed Morano
Length: 1h 33min
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“I Think We’re Alone Now,” is a post-apocalyptic, slow-burning and somber tale that brings us into the life of one man, Del (Peter Dinklage) as he is finding his way around a new, solitary existence following an unexplained event which kills everyone he knows, and then some.
For all intents and purposes, Del is the last man on earth. What would you do if everything and everyone you knew suddenly ended? Del copes with this by systematically going through homes in his town, removing the dead and then methodically cleaning the home. Oh, and he also takes all the family photographs and any batteries he can find. During the movie, it becomes clear that Del never had a functional family or social life prior to The Event. Maybe it is this lack of personal loss which allows him to easily slip into a life of managed solitude and the self-appointed role of caretaker of everything left behind?
Regardless, his carefully re-created life ends when Grace (Elle Fanning) arrives. Grace’s existence is disconcerting because Del is not looking for company nor did he care to see if others had survived. She is an outsider; younger, louder, inquisitive and unnerving. Del wants her to leave but, nonetheless, allows her to stay (Guilt? Empathy?). Grace jumps right into the middle of his life, rocking the boat and forcing him to question whether what he has is enough. She’s bright eyed and innocent but has claws when threatened, a trait that he seems to reluctantly respect.
At first, I assumed Grace was looking for other survivors when she stumbled on Del and shoe-horned her way into his world. But, as it turns out, Grace knows things that Del does not and she was not looking for other people as much as she was running away from them. Say what? Dun dun dun. No spoilers here!
This movie has no car chases, nudity, swearing, drug use, evil lotteries of death or flesh-eating zombies. It is subtler in exposing the potential hazards of developing a new world order. It moves at a steady pace that allows you to be engaged in the story while giving you a sense of the plodding along such a solitary lifestyle could produce. Here’s a question, if humanity was suddenly wiped out but you did not have to worry about survival, what would you do?
If you are like me and enjoy psychoanalyzing people (and really, who doesn’t enjoy that?), you may find additional hours of entertainment by overthinking why the characters acted one way or another and how the suddenness of a cosmic “do-over” may cause us to seriously question the meaning of “civilization” as we witness it’s rebuilding.
Dinklage totally holds his own throughout the film. He is in almost every scene and, let me just say, he is one good-looking man (ummm, I mean he’s talented!). His portrayal of Del is intense and though there are many scenes with limited words, you never question what Del’s thinking or what is happening. Basically, Dinklage done goooood. Fanning, is adorable (because she can’t help it) but brings the grit she needs for the character to develop. I enjoyed the movie and I think you will too if this is the type of movie you like or are in the mood for something different. I recommend you sit back and take it all in–how about tonight? You never know when the world will end…
