As the 21st Century began with military excursions in far off lands that raged on for 20 years, the after effects of these brutal wars became an important topic as veterans returned home with the scars of conflict embedded in their psyches and affecting their lives for years to come. Mental trauma can change a person and the trickle down effect affects not just them, but all who love and care for them as well. A new film delves into this issue at first through genre filmmaking, but ultimately through the lens of those touched by it most intimately.
Decorated Marine Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) has identified a hidden alien threat on Earth, one that entails alien bugs seizing control of people and bringing them under the parasites’ control, while outwardly appearing normal to everyone else. When Malik can’t convince the military to sound the alarm, he decides to at least protect his two young sons Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) from the global parasitic invasion, even if it means taking them from his estranged wife Piya (Janina Gavankar) and her new beau. As Malik races to save the world, his sons soon begin to question their father’s grasp of reality.
What begins as a sci-fi film about monsters that we can’t see but infect humans and drive us into becoming our worst selves, giving into our worst impulses, slowly develops into an emotional and poignant look at a very real invisible monster that we know lurks among us but has been oft ignored until recently; post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Malik is a decorated veteran that undoubtedly saw a lot during his time in the Marines, leaving him a shell of himself and in need of extensive health services to deal with the aftermath of his military service. Like many US veterans, the failure to link Malik to the clinical assistance he needed snowballed into the loss of his family and a complete mental break that led to his being a danger to himself and others. Riz Ahmed’s portrayal of this descent into madness due to the horrors of war and failure of the leadership who sent them there is masterful and his third awards worthy performance in under 12 months. The level of emotion and empathy Ahmed commands in his portrayal of a father engaged in a battle of wills between his mental sickness and his love for his children is powerful and elevates the script completely, turning Encounter into one of the most thrilling watches of the year.
Lest you think Ahmed pulls off this feat solo, it’s the chemistry between him, Lucian-River Chauhan, and Aditya Geddada that completely carries this film and makes into an extremely good watch with emotional heft. Chauhan dazzles as the older brother who trusts his father, but is now at the age where he can begin to question the things an older adult tells him and who also feels a sense of responsibility for protecting his younger sibling. Chauhan is the film’s main conscience (although not the only) and the audience stand-in working through the film’s alien mystery, slowly realizing that something isn’t right. Geddada plays the cute but unruly young child role well, encapsulating the boys’ dilemma of craving closeness and presence from their father, but fearing the person he has become in the wake of his illness. Octavia Spencer also offers an emotional supporting performance as Malik’s parole officer that believes in his potential for getting better, perhaps a little more than he is displaying at the moment. Her character serves as the other conscience of the film, taking on the duty of seeing that Malik and the boys are found safely, partly due to her own mistakes and perhaps as a stand-in for the failures of the system that put Malik onto this path.
Encounter is an heart-wrenching look at the effects of PTSD, father-son dynamics, and what happens when a kid has to be the responsible one in the parent-child relationship. Director Michael Pearce is able to seamlessly interweave sci-fi with family drama and into a thriller, along with some killer visuals, as the film’s story progresses with his actors and their chemistry elevating the material even further. Riz Ahmed is spectacular once again as Malik, pulling the audience with him as he evokes a range of emotions from anger to pity to sadness as you watch a young father struggle with his demons. Lucian-River Chauhan plays a young boy forced to make the leap to young man on the fly convincingly and powerfully as he slowly realizes he must be the mature one to save not only his little brother but his father as well. This is one of the most emotional films of the year and one of its best surprises.
Image: Amazon Studios
