Thought-Provoking, Tense and Provactive

Rating: 8/10 (27 February 2018)

From Alex Garland, director and writer of 2015's "Ex Machina", comes the on-screen treatment of Jeff Vandermeer's bestselling science-fiction novel. Natalie Portman stars as a biologist who decides to enter the mysterious 'Shimmer', a colorful invisible wall cloaking a dark and possibly dangerous secret, to find out what has caused the sudden illness of her militant husband (Oscar Isaac).
Director Alex Garland has crafted a strong female lead in Alicia Vikander's Ava in his debut feature and even with adapting a screenplay the director manages to keep his female characters strong and the film's casting helps. With Oscar winner Natalie Portman (alleged whitewashing rumors aside) as leading heroine, Lena, the actress provides both a naivety but also fierce courage to the intelligent biologist. Lena knows so little about her husband despite how much she says she loves him, but her drive for knowledge leads her to inspect the mystery of the Shimmer after her husband goes comatose. Portman does not allow her character to become a whimpering mess when faced with extreme peril within the Shimmer; she fires her weapon to help protect her comrades, uses logic to try and assuage their fears but is willing to admit there is much they don't understand and in the end her relentless nature helps keep her alive.
The talented supporting female players help round out the core players and clashing personalities to Portman's Lena. Character actress Jennifer Jason Leigh plays psychologist Dr. Ventress, a mysterious/secretive woman who is unwilling to tell her comrades the truth of why the group is actually going into the Shimmer. Her secretiveness ultimately leads to the demise of several characters and Ventress is unremorseful for what her actions and lies have done to others as long as she benefits and try to succeed in solving the mystery. Gina Rodriguez as Anya is one of the more damaged members of the group as she quickly succumbs to paranoia within the artificial environment despite the best efforts of Lena and fellow member Josie (Tessa Thompson) to calm her. Her bond with the soft-spoken Cass Shepherd (Tuva Notovny) seems to be the only happiness Anya knows in her life. Tuva Novotny has the smallest amount of screen-time of the female players, but shows her worldliness in such a small amount of time. Cass knows that she probably won't return home and makes vague remarks to Lena throughout the film, but provides the most human element of her companions till her time does run out. And then there's Tessa Thompson as the troubled Josie, a kind and soft-spoken soul like Cass but has endured more pain than the others. Josie like Cass also knows her time will run out before the mission is over, but she has made peace with the idea and when her moment comes she calmly accepts her fate.
The film's visuals are primarily subtle, but haunting and stunning. The Shimmer is simply a mesh of light colors like pink, green and white and glows or shimmers (like the name implies) but its influence is felt throughout the environment by the viewer and characters. Motion-capture is even used for the hybrid creatures such as a monstrous crocodile that tries to dispatch our heroines.
The narrative is overall straightforward, but comes with some twists and turns particularly by the final act. The mystery of why our heroines are in the Shimmer appears to be answered, but the answer isn't so simple as the teams' own mental states come into question as they trek further into the Shimmer. Even the reveal of what happened to Oscar Isaac's Kane is not what we thought actually happened and we share in Lena's anguish at the truth. However the film's greatest mystery comes with the final shot of the actor's eyes and makes you wonder if the Shimmer is still alive and influencing our survivors.