We lead our lives, often defined by faces and places that make us feel comfortable being our honest selves. It may be a city that keeps us anonymous in a crowd, a town that offers an escape to an undemanding simplicity, or a faraway land that keeps us away from our complicated past, but we crave the way these things make us feel. That comfort, however, can become a crutch or a trap if we let it dictate every single decision we make.
The characters in Louis Paxton’s feature film debut, “The Incomer,” face a similar conflict because they resist change and insist on staying inside their bubble. Yet, it pops up upon the arrival of a stranger who reluctantly pokes holes in it. Written and directed by Paxton, the film primarily follows three characters who cross paths against their will. Initially, we meet two of them, Isla (Gayle Rankin) and her brother Sandy (Grant O’Rourke), on a remote island devoid of any signs of present civilization. They don’t know what the internet is, let alone artificial intelligence, even though they don’t look too old to be that way.
Isla keeps everything under her control, and Sandy behaves according to her whims without ever questioning her judgment. He remains afraid of her mere presence, which keeps him cooped up in their old-timey house with her. Together, they keep the isle proudly closed off from any foreign presence, which makes Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson) seem like an adversary instead of a friendly guest.
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Daniel is a government official who gets an assignment to relocate the siblings to a new place due to some systemic changes. Already shy and ruffled, he tries to avoid this responsibility, but his boss doesn’t allow him the grace of choice, which puts him in a bind. As an employee, he must do what he has been told to do, which brings him to the island. From then on, we see Daniel fighting a solitary battle against his siblings to fulfill his duties, which leads to some not-so-unpredictable conflicts related to his deep-seated insecurities.
The whole affair becomes funnier due to the clash of different personalities, with Isla being unapologetically assertive, while Daniel and Sandy are submissive in their own ways. Sandy has a full-bodied beard and a physique imposing enough to intimidate someone, but he seems as endearing as a kid waiting to go back home from school.
Daniel doesn’t seem held back by similar kiddishness, but he seems awkward from head to toe, which makes him an ideal prey for Isla’s scorn. Gleeson is reliably charming as a character whom we would pity even if he is often the butt of the joke, while Rankin is impressive in depicting her placidity along with murkier undertones.
The entire clash feels quite similar to Tim Key and Tom Basden’s “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” which also follows an outsider arriving at a remote island to meet an adorably solitary individual. Even though the circumstances and the expected outcome differ, the annoyances between characters from the two sides of the ocean stem from similar concerns of emotional connection. The sheer charm of that film makes you realize the glaring issues in “The Incomer.”
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Wallis Island’s script fleshed out Key and Basden’s characters to make us register their humanity beyond their quips or quirks, too well. Even Carey Mulligan’s supporting character was layered and lively, without being defined by the strangeness of her presence in its equation. The Incomer’s script builds Rankin’s character enough to analyze the bleak aspects of nurture behind her nature. It also clues us into the emotional thread that ultimately binds her and Sandy with Daniel. However, it doesn’t offer Sandy any personality beyond his goofiness, nor does it expand on Daniel’s maladies as a derided and underappreciated employee beyond bare minimum details.
Every character feels limited to their metaphorical place within this story, which depicts the collision of the old and the new world. Their traits, although charming at first, can get annoying soon because you barely get to know them beyond that cutesiness. The plot goes through the familiar motions of people confronting their realities, which makes the whole affair fairly predictable. Moreover, the jokes rarely land, and the humor gets tedious if you have seen enough of similarly zany comedies.
The script does attempt to enrich the film with some folklorish flourishes that restate how we use stories to make sense of our worlds. It utilizes some bits of 2D animation and discordant musical notes to build a peculiar comedic tone. Pat Golan’s cinematography heightens its impact with some interesting framing choices, deepening their sense of isolation or the absurdity of their predicament, and understanding the value of non-judgmental human presence in the trio’s lives. As it unfolds, the script gives any outcast or weirdo something to recognize themselves in, since social exclusion sits at the heart of the film. Yet, it all compounds into something that’s unfortunately tedious with occasional bouts of effective amusement.
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