I think of Elias Koteas as Canada's Robert DeNiro. He is similarly hardbitten, has the same twisted grin, and a suggestion of volatility. With almost a hundred film and TV shows to his credit, he's a sturdy character actor. I remember him best from Fincher's Zodiac, Cronenberg's Crash, and Malick's The Thin Red Line. It's good to catch up with him in The Silent Planet. He's older, more grizzled, but no less compelling.
Mr. Koteas plays Theodore, the sole inmate on a penal planet. Theodore's life is one of routine: he excavates the rocky wasteland, gets buzzed if he flags—"Back to work," intones an electronic voice—and has a sensor in his chest. At night in his space pod he stares out a small portal or watches a TV sitcom supplied by his captors, showing what life might be like if he'd gone straight. Theo is haunted by the vision of a lovely woman from his previous life. He is terminally ill.
One day a new pod suddenly arrives, carrying a young woman who is unaware of Theo's presence. She thinks she alone has been sent there. Theo is desperate for company. He stalks around her pod, playing hide and seek, until he makes himself known. The woman, Niyya, is a convicted terrorist, serving out a life sentence. But the two are the only ones there. So begins an unlikely comradeship.
Mr. Koteas at first plays Theodore as feeble in a way that belies the character's past and potential. Newcomer Briana Middleton is an able foil for him: athletic, with striking features and an air of a warrior princess. Both hold the screen well as their story ceases to resemble edgy domestic tranquility and more something like Bresson's Le Dernier Combat.
The two set up house. By day Theo schools Niyya in their barren environment: "Things just fly out of your mind here. It's like birds," he says. His hallucinations become more distinct and agonizing. Niyya, for her part, finds Theo familiar but just can't place from where. Her memories nag, until they reveal her true mission on this desolate planet.
The Silent Planet, intriguingly subtitled The Sad Dreams of Earthlings, is written and directed by Jeffrey St. Jules, whose previous films include Cinema of Sleep and Bang Bang Baby. Mr. St. Jules suspends our disbelief with spare terrain and lively exchanges in the pods.
The Silent Planet does a lot with a little. It's a suspenseful space opera on its own terms. Those coming to The Silent Planet for interplanetary fireworks will instead find a low-tech chamber piece, a two character show, not moody but not light either.
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The Silent Planet. Directed by Jeffrey St. Jules. 2024. From Quiver Distribution. Available on digital platforms. Runtime 95 minutes