Movie Review: I Think We're Alone Now

I Think We’re Alone Now ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Reed Morano.

Written by: Mike Makowsky.

Starring: Peter Dinklage (Del), Elle Fanning (Grace), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Violet), Paul Giamatti (Patrick).

 

How many films have we seen about the supposedly last man in the world, realizing that he is not really alone? Well, with I Think We’re Alone Now, we have added one more to the list. In this case, I think they have an intriguing protagonist in Peter Dinklage’s Del, and an intriguing setup when he discovers he’s not alone – but from there, I don’t think much about the movies various final act twists really work, and as a result, the whole movie suffers.

 

Even before the apocalypse – whatever it was – Dinklage’s Del was a loner. He worked in a small, upstate New York town, in the library – but at night (who works in a library at night?). Since something has wiped out everyone else in town – and supposedly the world – Del makes his way methodically through his small town, house by house looking for batteries and corpses. The batteries he keeps; the corpses he buries. He keeps the library organized, and everything else about his life the same way. In his weird way, he seems oddly content in this way of life – there is no one around to get in the way of him keeping this organized. The best moment in the film is when he realizes he cannot be alone – when looking up into the night sky, she seems fireworks. He doesn’t know what it all means – he just knows it won’t be good. This is when he meets Grace (Elle Fanning), a young woman who he at first tries to convince to move on down the road, and forget about him and his town – but slowly comes to befriend. There are hints of something simmering between them, but nothing really develops there. What will discover, of course, is that both Del and Grace have secrets.

 

Dinklage is impressive in a largely silent role as Del. He’s actually at his best in the first 10 minutes of the film, before those fireworks arrive, as we watch him in his daily routine, and figure out everything we really need to know about him. Dinklage is always great fun on Game of Thrones – where he talks more than anyone else, but here he shows just what a powerfully subtle actor he can be. When he is alone here, he is fine – finally able to just be himself, and not have to be around all those people. Fanning isn’t quite as good as Dinklage – mainly because I don’t think the film ever really gets to know her as anything more than a concept. What do you give a guy who is happy in his isolation, living out the end of the world? Why of course, a talkative, bubbly blonde young woman, not quite manic pixie dream girl, but close enough. And of course, these two opposites will inspire each other both to do something different – either commit to something, or come out of your shell. The intriguing questions at the beginning of the film start to give way to more mundane ones as the film movies along. Still, it’s preferable to what happens at the end – which I will not spoil, but since the cast list doesn’t just include Dinklage and Fanning, you have some idea of what may happen next. The twists at the end of the movie may well be how they sold the movie. Audiences love a good twist, don’t they, and this one seems designed to blow their minds, and make you consider bigger questions about How We Live Now.

 

It doesn’t really fit though, is the problem. When the film starts, we get a portrait of a man who is perfectly content to disprove the old quote “No Man is an island”, and by the end the film has twisted itself into something really truly wants to say something big and important. And it rings hollow. I will say that Dinklage is still great in the film, Fanning saves an underwritten character, and the talented, Emmy winning director Reed Morano (who won for directing The Handmaid’s Tale in season 1) remains talented – doing a great job showing us the isolated, small town. The screenplay lets them down though. Honestly, as a 10 minute short, ending with those fireworks, the film would be damn near perfect.