Movie Review – The Answer

During the opening credit roll, a woman is abducted and taken to a dim room occupied by sinister characters. Here the woman gives birth and is promptly killed on the table. Meanwhile, our protagonist Bridd Cole (Austin Hébert) has a dream involving an orange/yellow balloon, but then he wakes up. Bridd works as a mail clerk for a financial company. One morning, he is asked to step in for an account representative. While mending a transaction, he discovers his newfound talent for speed, precision and memory. Bridd continues to dream about an orange/yellow balloon. He receives a package the next morning – it is an electronic handheld device sent by his mother who has been dead twenty years. At work, Bridd has a chance encounter with a co-worker Alexis (Charlotte Parker), and they immediately enter into an unnaturally speedy romance. Following an afternoon in the park, Bridd and Alexis are attacked by two bikers in SWAT outfits and brandishing rounded, double-blade knives. While on the run from the cyclists, Bridd solves a puzzle on his electronic handheld, and is given a message from his father…an address and the revelation Bridd is an alien/human hybrid. The late-night scavenger hunt begins.

The Answer is director Iqbal Ahmed’s first full-length film. The technical aspects of the film are adequate, yet the writing and dialogue feel amateurish. The romance between the main characters resembles that of Anakin and Padme in Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) – he has tantrums and over-dramatizes, while she maintains support for him – all the while building on their relationship. We have seen this premise before – a young adult realizes that he/she is half alien and an unnaturally trusting relationship blossoms. Nothing seems all that different here. This couple spends much of the film sitting, talking, planning, sleeping, and then running whenever bikers show up.

Adam Shapiro plays Trent, a co-worker and friend to the couple. David S. Lee plays The Leader – the antagonist and leader of the biker gang who prefers not to speak much, has glowing red eyes, and prefers to carry and use one of those rounded, double-blade knives almost exclusively.

Bridd and Charlotte make jewelry for each other out of grass and weeds whenever they pause to talk on grassy terrain. I suppose it symbolizes their fresh, budding relationship. But it feels more odd than romantic.

It would seem like the writer of this film (also Iqbal Ahmed) was attempting to dress up the standard and formulaic ‘young alien on the run’ scenario with additional details and frills, but this distracts more than enhances the story. While viewing the film, at some point the viewer may begin questioning various aspects of the plot, their relevance, and overall purpose pertaining to continuity. Unfortunately, there are no answers as The Answer creates more questions and can leave the viewer in a state of indifference.