I Think We're Alone Now (2018)

 

Del lives alone.  Not 'alone' in the sense that he's the only one in his household - though he is.  'Alone' in the sense that as far as he knows, he is the only living human left on the planet.

Everyone else in Del's home town died, in an unspecified manner, "on a Tuesday afternoon", and there have been no radio communications or broadcasts.  Believing he is the last man on Earth, Del has set about leading a peaceful existence in his hometown, living in the library where he used to work and spending the day clearing out people's homes and burying the dead. 

And then one night, he sees fireworks.

The person responsible for this turns out to be a young woman named Grace.  Although Grace is noisy, and somewhat erratic in her behaviour, Del can't quite bring himself to force her to leave.  Instead, he slowly becomes used to her presence, and when he teaches her his methods for clearing the homes of the dead, it provides am opportunity for her to help him, and for the pair of them to bond.

Which of course means that things are about to get complicated ...

This post-apocalyptic drama relies very heavily on its two main cast members, particularly Peter Dinklage, who plays Del.  Much of the first act is just him; while the second act is entirely about how Grace's arrival turns his very structured life upside down and how the two of them must learn to live together.

Fortunately, in Dinklage and Elle Fanning you have the actors to meet this kind of challenge.  Dinklage in particular is great, especially at the non-verbal aspects of acting.  For instance, there's a sequence where only his eyes are visible, and you can see the emotional pain.  It's really great work.

I think the script also does a good job of balancing the two characters.  There's a hood dynamic, as Grace is feasibly both the kind of person who would drive Del crazy, but also the kind who can thaw his icy exterior.

Unfortunately, after all this solid establishing work, the script lacks a bit on the follow-through.  For instance, there's a sub-plot involving a disagreement about a stray dog - Grace wants to adopt it, while Del wants it gone (possibly because he thinks Grace will also go, if it does).  Del gets his way, and then the sub-plot just kind of stops; there is never a real acknowledgement of Del's actions, and he and Grace never mention the animal again.

Also, while it has been obvious all along that Grace has not been completely honest about her background, and there is another shoe to drop, the dropping of that shoe is a bit ... fumbled.

As you might have expected, there are more survivors, and they come looking for Grace.  But little about this sequence makes much sense.  How did they find her? Why did they go to the immense effort it must have taken to do so? The film doesn't present any convincing need or motivation.

On the plus side, I did like that the newcomers' sinister scheme of sinisterness is, in their minds, benevolent.  They're wrong, of course: what they are doing us deeply misguided and quite frightening. But they're not the usual 'evil for the sake of it' monsters that we often see in post-apocalyptic stories.  This does result in a rather more low-key denouement than might be expected.  Some people may find it a little underwhelming, in fact.  Still, I appreciate the effort to try to do something a little more nuanced than normal, in this regard.

I Think We're Alone Now definitely has its flaws, but it has enough strengths that I don't regret seeing it.