The Big Picture

The Silent Planet
lacks subtlety and originality, instead relying on clunky dialogue and stiff writing.
The film falls short of higher quality sci-fi productions, despite strong performances from the cast.
Lack of attention to detail and immersion, coupled with budget constraints, weaken the overall impact of the film.

For a sci-fi film called The Silent Planet, it’s rather strange how much its characters insist on spelling things out aloud. This is a shame, as some of the most underrated science fiction films of late have thrived on embracing the terrors of the unknown and the more subtle without feeling the need to hold our hand through it all. Even when working with limited budgets or playing around with classic genre ideas, they have been able to create something refreshingly mesmerizing within the familiar. Rather than letting us linger in this feeling or get swept up by what are solid performances that speak for themselves, writer-director Jeffrey St. Jules’ latest science fiction film is a regrettably empty work that ultimately squanders far too much of its potential. Although it has an intriguing premise about two people stranded on a faraway planet, the clunky dialogue and rather stiff writing generally drag it down at nearly every turn. You want to go with it, but it all just gets lost in space.

The Silent Planet (2024) Release Date July 24, 2024 Director Jeffrey St. Jules Runtime 95 Minutes Main Genre Sci-Fi Writers Jeffrey St. Jules Expand

What Is ‘The Silent Planet’ About?

Split into multiple parts, this all initially centers around a man named Theodore who is a prisoner doomed to work grueling manual labor on a faraway planet. Played by the always enigmatic Elias Koteas of the far superior recent film Janet Planet, he is entirely alone and seems to be physically as well as mentally unwell. Initially, there is almost a slight yet promising echo of something like Claire Denis’ haunting High Life, which itself was a confined sci-fi film about prisoners unraveling before our eyes. However, this film falls far short of any such heights, ironic considering the unexpectedly prescient quote it opens with explicitly saying how there is a limit to how far one can climb. Namely, the arrival of a new prisoner in Niyya, played by Briana Middleton of the recent film Sharper, makes clear this is just going to be about these two strangers circling each other in lieu of any other interesting ideas. It soon gets caught up in stilted flashbacks and a rather tension-free conflict built on a shaky mystery of sorts, revealing itself to be nothing more than a scattered thriller.

Playing as what is essentially a sci-fi riff on a film like Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, though with none of the necessary patience or striking visuals, this is merely a middling imitation of better films that is never able to break free of its constraints. There is perhaps a good movie to be found here if it honed in more on the strengths of the performances, but they too get stranded alongside their characters. There are several moments where we just get to sit with Koteas and Middleton as they share a scene together, each hitting all the right notes of their different yet similarly troubled characters. We feel how wary Niyya is of the whole unfolding situation and how a betrayal from her past weighs heavily on her.

The same can be said of Theodore, whose isolation, where the closest thing to human contact is a terrible sitcom to watch, has made him start to lose touch with anything that can ground him. The trouble is the way paranoia starts to creep in never quite feels either natural or compelling in how it is written. You feel what should be an emotional impact in the performances, but there are just too many contrivances that the writing uses to get there.

‘The Silent Planet’ Is a Science Fiction Film Held Back by Its Own Limitations
Image via Fantasia

Speaking of said planet, rarely do you feel like you’re somewhere else, as opposed to just a remote location on Earth. This isn’t always a problem, especially when the two characters are mostly confined in what are essentially small pods for living, but it still is hard to shake the feeling that we’re just out in the desert somewhere as opposed to potentially millions of miles away. That there are then many moments of rather iffy special effects that prevent us from getting immersed in this world only makes it that much harder to go along with. The closer you look at it, the more you can begin to see the many cracks starting to form.

To say this is a product of the budget is part of it, but you can also see how a film like the underrated recent Prospect was able to make do with limited resources by finding creative ways to create a sense of being on another world far from our own. It was in the little details that a simple forest could feel like a similarly desolate planet where people were also unable to easily breathe and were trying to get resources. It had texture and grit that was captured in everything from the simple yet stellar visual effects to how it was filmed with an eye for ensuring these small details all felt alive. In The Silent Planet, there just isn’t that same sense of care put into the critical elements of its craft. There is a final moment of tranquility that it arrives at in the end, but rather than this silence being profound, it’s all just perfunctory.

REVIEW The Silent Planet (2024) The Silent Planet has some good ideas floating around, though it’s silence ends up less golden and more garden-variety sci-fi.ProsElias Koteas and Briana Middleton each give solid performances with what little they’re given.The film has some strong scenes where its two actors really make you feel their characters’ respective emotions. ConsThe film reveals itself to be nothing more than a scattered thriller with stilted flashbacks and a rather tension-free conflict.Both the dialogue and writing does a disservice to the actors, leaving them stranded along with their characters.The film ends with a moment of tranquility that is less profound and more perfunctory.

The Silent Planet had its World Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival.