Endearing ‘Incomer’ Is Island Onto Itself
The goings-on in Louis Paxton’s debut feature, “The Incomer,” are as absurd as they are charming, telling the tale of feral, island-bound siblings who’ve never had contact with the “real” world. Well, not until a timid man from the home office walks upon their craggy, wind-swept shore clutching eviction papers.
That would be Domhnall Gleeson’s Daniel, a nerd’s nerd grudgingly schlepped here at his taciturn boss’s behest to “dehumanize” the archipelag. As a member of the UK’s land-recovery team, he only wants to make people happy, not uproot them, especially when they are as initially scary as Isla (Gayle Rankin) and her brother, Sandy (Grant O’Rourke), a burly manchild who looks like a refugee from the WWE.
Almost as soon as Daniel sets foot on their remote Scottish isle, the “incomer” is hogtied and held captive, a prisoner of self-governed, gull-worshipping eccentrics equipped with a peculiar set of laws and customs. And Paxton does them – and us – right by creating an engrossing backstory rooted in legend and myth, relayed to the uninitiated through crudely drawn animation sequences interspersed throughout the story.
The gist is that many moons ago, the island’s settlers were lured to the mainland, with Isla and Sandy’s parents as the only holdouts. But not long after, their mother fled, leaving them to be raised by their abusive father, who passed 30 years ago after sacrificing himself to the sea. It’s some story, the kind of folktale Paxton clearly adores and seeks to honor through his own whimsical yarn in which he boldly replaces selkies and kelpies with serpent-like “fin men,” who rule the waters surrounding an island that thousands of seabirds and two seriously deranged people call home.
One of the earless fin men (John Hannah) rears its ugly head, trying to entice Isla to join her father permanently in the tranquility of the ocean’s depths. You can see in Isla’s wild eyes that her life has become so hopelessly mundane she’s tempted to accept the invitation. But Daniel’s unexpected arrival stirs new blood, especially when the desperate-to-stay-alive stranger begins passing himself off as a “wizard” bearing adventurous stories of hobbits and elves. Transfixed, the sibs free him from his bindings so he can better entertain them with a bastardized, bureaucratic version of “The Lord of the Rings.”
Predictably, the sibs warm to Daniel and he to them, but Paxton throws a spanner into the works by cleverly creating a love triangle in which both Isla and Sandy do the unthinkable by pining for Daniel. The results are both sweet and funny, especially from the stealth perspective of yet another intruder in Calum (Emun Elliott), a self-styled ninja sent by Daniel’s acerbic boss, Roz (Michelle Gomez), after he fails to return from his island excursion.
It all builds toward a wonderfully ridiculous third act that repeatedly threatens to go off the rails but never does, largely because you’ve become so invested in these diverse, quirky characters who bizarrely complete each other. Their goofiness is contagious, and you get sucked into their primitive island life, often wondering whether Isla and Sandy have the right idea in cutting themselves off from a maddening world of cell phones, social media, and authoritarian politics. Daniel certainly does.
And if he had his druthers, he’d stay with the sibs and their beloved gulls in perpetuity. But there comes a point when the fantasy must collide head-on with the realities of a world where no one is truly alone anymore. How Paxton depicts this final showdown is sure to stir debate and a wee bit of disappointment, as he backs himself – and his characters – deep into a corner. Yet, he still manages to send you home laughing louder than at any other point in his joyous movie.
Paxton’s secret lies in his sly, pinpoint observational musings on how we’ve become so enslaved by our creature comforts that we’ve lost almost all sense of adventure. At the same time, he also leaves us thankful we don’t need to dine on boiled seagull night after night like Isla and Sandy. It’s an existential message that cleverly rings loudest when his film is at its zaniest.
The glue that holds it all together is Gleeson’s excellent turn as a scaredy-cat who learns through Isla and Sandy that he has his own particular set of strengths. Most notably, a superior intelligence that belies his scrawny body. He’s great, but without Rankin and O’Rourke to play off, he’d be, excuse the expression, alone on an island.
Both are sublime deadpan comedians, unafraid to look silly in their makeshift seagull costumes and cowls. You might even say it’s a beak performance. And Elliott is right there with them, fully embracing the silliness of Calum slathering himself in black body paint to blend into the surroundings. Or, so he hilariously wants to believe.
From start to glorious finish, “The Incomer” is the sort of classic British comedy that would make Monty Python proud. It’s about isolation versus getting lost in the madding crowd. And though it’s set on a mostly deserted island, what transpires upon it is universal, the perfect antidote for the millions of jaded Daniels wishing to escape from the insanity of a “normal” life, but too attached to the hustle and bustle to dare venture from it. For 100 blissful minutes, Paxton presents the opportunity to kick back, sheathe the “weapons of stone and bone,” and bask in the madness that is “The Incomer. Yes, it’s a little bit out to sea, but I suspect you won’t mind atoll.
Movie review
The Incomer
Rated: R for brief graphic nudity
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O’Rourke, Emun Elliott and Michelle Gomez
Director: Louis Paxton
Writer: Louis Paxton
Runtime: 102 minutes
Where: In theaters Sept. 25 (limited)
Grade: B+
