When people talk longingly about escaping to a deserted island, they probably don’t imagine forgoing human contact altogether. Peace and quiet is one thing; total isolation is quite another. At a bare minimum, there’s probably wifi. To which Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke), the brother and sister at the center of Louis Paxton’s debut film The Incomer, ask: what’s that? The siblings were raised on an unspecified island (likely part of the Orkney archipelago off northeast Scotland) as part of a larger community, but over time the other families decamped to the mainland one by one. Left alone after the death of their parents, Isla and Sandy stayed put, surviving but not exactly thriving.
Without the distraction of screens (and, seemingly, even books), entertainment consists of telling stories, yelling at the sea, bickering ferociously, and creating homemade weapons to ward off enemies real and imagined. With her straight brown hair and patched clothes, Isla resembles a 19th-century frontier woman, except she’s harvesting peat instead of milking cows. Rankin, who played a female wrestler with a wolf persona in the Netflix series GLOW, taps into that same ferocity here: alternately snarling, brawling, and cawing like a gull, she views the island as her ancestral home and its defense as her birthright. Sandy is somewhat gentler, a teddy bear of a man who is more open to the outside world and its detritus (a hot pink dildo washes ashore early on and becomes a recurring gag), but relies on his sister for almost everything.
Given their unstable dynamic of self-sufficiency and co-dependency, it’s no wonder that the arrival of the titular incomer, Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson), upends their lives. A socially awkward and buttoned-up bureaucrat who’s been sent by the nearest council to recover the island and evict any last residents, he is bullied by his boss Roz (Michelle Gomez) and stuck in his own sort of holding pattern. His clumsy attempts to entice the siblings to the mainland are met with confusion by Sandy and scorn by Isla, and it’s hard not to take their side. Why should they be impressed by grocery stores if no one knows where the food comes from? And how does the internet work, really? After a rocky start (that includes Daniel literally taking a rock to the head), the breakthrough in their relationship comes when the incomer relies on good old-fashioned storytelling to bond with the siblings instead of more modern temptations.
Even though Daniel is something of an ambassador for mainland comforts given his role with the council, it’s clear that 21st century conveniences haven’t done much to boost his happiness or self-confidence. His interactions with colleagues are painfully stilted, his desk cluttered with fantasy figurines. So when he eventually goes native, donning his own gull costume to undermine Roz and the team she brings along to empty the island, viewers will root for his newfound sense of freedom while knowing it can’t last. Bureaucracy is implacable, as are Roz and her henchman Calum (Emun Elliot), a Bear Grylls-esque adventurer who seems to relish the opportunity to drink his own urine (for survival!). And unlike his characters, Paxton is a good sport and a genial host. He knows the premise of his film is slightly ridiculous — Isla and Sandy are supposed to have survived 30 years without medicine or Irn Bru? — but amiably asks viewers to go along with it, just as Daniel does.
With its black-and-white animated interludes and elements of Scottish folklore, especially the slippery, ominous Finman (John Hannah) who tries to tempt Isla underwater, The Incomer is infused with an appealing homespun quirkiness. Paxton also pulls from a kaleidoscope of films set in similar places or with similar characters, including the feral madness at the heart of Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, the horror-folk animal costuming and distrust of outsiders that made The Wicker Man so memorable, and even the cozy knit sweaters that caused such a splash in The Banshees of Inisherin. But leaving the island isn’t a Paradise Lost moment for the trio, since it was never a paradise to begin with. Instead, in facing the unknown together, Isla and Sandy finally have the opportunity for the personal growth that they’ve long been denied. And with Daniel to help them adjust, the siblings learn that growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of what was lost, but through embracing what’s been gained. And yes, that includes wifi.
DIRECTOR: Louis Paxton; CAST: Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O’Rourke, Emun Elliott, Michelle Gomez; DISTRIBUTOR: Sumerian Pictures; IN THEATERS: September 25; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 42 min.
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