The Host

For the first half hour of Writer/Director Andrew Niccol’s The Host,  I thought I had made a big mistake in seeing it, but, then, it evolved into a very interesting story of love and compassion that was surprisingly entertaining…, if you like love stories…, as I do.

The initial problems of the film have nothing to do with the cast. The film stars Saoirse Ronan (Hanna/Atonement), who is, by far, the best actress under 20 and the reason I wanted to see the film.  Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds/ National Treasure) is a great heavy and William Hurt as the patriarch of the rebel humans grounded the younger members of the cast, all of whom did a fine job.  

The problems come from the production team.  Admittedly, the story is difficult to script, but I feel they reached too hard to have a startling opening before we even knew who was who and then had to use flashbacks to tell us about the key characters.  And, most difficult of all was the fact the main character had a double personality, necessitating that one had to talk to the other in voiceover. Unfortunately, the voiceover was not well done and felt clunky throughout the entire film.

 

But the actors won out over the production problems and delivered a touching story that is worth your attention.

                                         

 

Because of the production shortcomings, I can only give The Host a 3+ out of 5. 

But, if you can last through the first 30 or so minutes, I think you’ll enjoy this movie.