This surprisingly old-fashioned (and slowly paced) science-fiction drama has a lot of heart, even if it is aimed at a teenage and post-teenage audience (it has a heavy emphasis on kissing).  Much of its success has to do with two key performers, Soarise Ronan and William Hurt.  Even more is due to its writer-director, Andrew Niccol, who has taken Stephanie Meyer’s novel and has fashioned an intelligent, effective drama regarding the survival of humanity against tall odds.

Niccol has made a specialty of sci-fi oriented sociological explorations (Gattaca, The Truman Show [as writer only], Sim0ne, In Time) which posit dystopian futuristic scenarios.  The Host is perhaps the most benign alien invasion imaginable, and yet the theme of loss of humanity — both on individual and societal levels — remains imperative. The film follows a long tradition of a pocket of human resistance refusing to go down without a fight, although it must be noted that unlike most movies, this one does not end in anything resembling a blaze of glory.

Instead, it focuses on character development.  Melanie (Soarise Roman) is that rare human who, after being “inhabited” by an alien host, refuses to simply disappear, but fights her host about just about everything.  Ronan is a marvelously talented actress, one of the finest of her generation, and she conveys the characters’ dualism and split personalities with real feeling.  And as the leader of the remaining humans not under alien control, William Hurt shows why he was the top actor of the 1980s.  Hurt is just great as the slightly crazy old geezer with his own ideas of how to save the world.

As the plot unfolds and one particular alien (Diane Kruger) begins to adapt to the human ways of the world the story becomes more complicated and intriguing.  And when Melanie’s host begins to identify with the humans and Melanie’s existence is revealed, things really become interesting.  The characters are developed well enough that it really does matter what happens to them.  All of this results in a film rewarding in ways I did not expect to find.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  31 March 2013.