The Host

 

Based on the novel by Twilight creator, Stephanie Meyer, and adapted for the screen and directed by Andrew Niccol (In Time), The Host starts out kind of intriguing, but then kind of runs out of gas.  It's rejuvenated only by its moments of unintentional goofiness.  This is not exactly a good movie, but it's kind of amusing in that bizarre kind of way.  At least it's more interesting than anything that was featured in the Twilight Saga.

The intriguing stuff I mentioned earlier is all in the set up.  Set during an unspecified time (but presumably the near future), Earth has been invaded by a race of aliens known as Souls.  The Souls take over human bodies, and use them as hosts.  The only way you can tell a human from one harboring an alien Soul is that the Souls give their host a bright blue ring in their eyeballs.  Most of the human population is now controlled by the Souls, but there are still small pockets of human resistance out there, willing to fight back.  Amongst this resistance movement is a young girl named Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), who has been fighting to protect both herself, and her kid brother.  Early in the film, Melanie is cornered by some Souls, and rather than lose her freedom and her body to the aliens, she attempts suicide by throwing herself out a nearby window.  She survives the fall, however, and her body is implanted with a Soul known only as Wanderer.

Now that Wanderer is inside and controlling Melanie's body, her job is to search through Melanie's personal memories, learn where the resistance movement is hiding out, and report her findings to an alien superior named Seeker (Diane Kruger).  However, it turns out that Melanie's not entirely dead inside her own body.  Wanderer can often hear Melanie's voice inside of her own head, and there are even moments where Melanie can briefly take control of her old body.  Through Melanie's influence, Wanderer is sent to a cave in the middle of the desert where the human resistance hides out.  There, Wanderer is introduced to Melanie's Uncle Jeb, the leader of the resistance (played by an uncharismatic William Hurt), as well as fellow resistance member and Melanie's former boyfriend, Jared (Max Irons).  The humans are suspicious of Melanie's body now hosting a Soul, but over time, they begin to notice some of Melanie's old mannerisms, and realize that her old personality is still in there somewhere.

It's about the time the movie hits the cave that things start to slow down considerably.  After this point, we seldom leave the cave, so we're stuck there for most of the movie.  This is disappointing, as I was really hoping to get to see more of the world under the control of the Souls.  We learn in an opening narration that world peace has essentially been achieved since humanity was taken over.  There are no more wars, no more poverty or hunger, and pollution is a thing of the past.  Wouldn't you like to know what such a world would be like?  Instead, we get a ridiculous "love square" when both personalities inhabiting Melanie's body fall in love with different guys.  Remember how I said Melanie's old boyfriend is a member of the resistance?  Well, the fact that she no longer has total control over her body or personality makes things complicated.  Things get even more complicated when Wanderer (using Melanie's body) starts to fall for a different resistance member, the hunky young Ian (Jake Abel).

I admit this idea could be interesting in the right hands, but The Host screws everything up by showing us too many scenes where the actress, Saorise Ronan, is just standing there, pretending to have conversations and monologues with herself.  We hear Melanie's voice inside her head, and then Wanderer will respond.  The movie relies on this many, many times, which is unfortunate, since it eventually starts to lead to some bad laughs.  It gets especially ridiculous when the two personalities sharing the body start arguing over the two guys, and who they want to be with.  Funny that neither Melanie or Wanderer come to the same conclusion that the audience does - Neither Jared or Ian is worth all this internal arguing and fighting.  Both guys are handsome, but dull as dish soap.   Melanie and Wanderer deserve better, and would probably keep each other company better than hanging out with these soulless pretty boys.

Once the love story kicks in, everything slows to a crawl, and we wish we could turn back time to the earlier scenes when the movie held promise.  Writer-director Andrew Nicoll is a talented filmmaker, who has been involved with a number of films I've admired over the years. (Gattaca, The Truman Show, Lord of War) Here, he seems the most at ease during the early sci-fi scenes.  There's some pretty good tension, and the glowing blue eyes of the humans inhabited by Souls is a subtle yet creepy effect.  Once the action switches to the cave hide out, however, you can just feel everything break down, starting with our involvement in this plot and characters.  I've not read the novel the film is based on, so I don't know if it shares the same problems as the film.  But considering that Stephanie Meyer is credited as lead producer, I have a feeling that Nicoll was forced to stay pretty close.

 

The Host is one of those movies that deserves a remake, with a different script, writer, and dialogue.  There's a set up for a good movie here that gets lost around the half hour mark.  It's too bad.  I was actually kind of involved during the first act.  But as the movie dragged on to a rather contrived and forced happy ending, I quickly found myself losing my patience.  This is a largely empty little film with a couple good ideas, but not much else to recommend it.

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