I like science fiction. I am aware that, for many, this is the one genre which they are not prepared to tolerate but you can blame ‘Star Wars’ for my infatuation. In fact, I suspect that my entire love of cinema is born out of that first film’s glorious opening moment, as the Star Destroyer roared over my 3 year old head.
I particularly enjoy those films where science fiction meets our own world – where the fantastical touches our own reality – and this is one such film. I guess that’s why I’m such a big Doctor Who fan because the Doctor is constantly showing up in our own time to help/meddle and I love the divergence.
I urge you, however, to put aside any doubts you might have about the nature of this film and simply revel in a beautiful character-driven piece exploring, primarily, the joy and pain of parenthood.
In brief, ‘Midnight Special’ is about a young boy, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), with strange abilities, who’s on the run from both a sinister cult and the American government. With the help of his father (Michael Shannon) he seeks out his true destiny.
If you’re familiar with my shaman blog, you’ll know that I have more than a passing interest with shamanism. Interestingly, shamans foresee a time when humanity will evolve and many ‘new agers’ believe that we are on the cusp of just such a development. Shamans speak of ‘homo luminous’ as being this next step of enlightenment. Well, if you wish to see what ‘homo luminous’ might look like, ‘Midnight Special’ has a pretty good depiction, in the guise of the little boy at the heart of the search.
Alton can emanate light and seems to have a special connection to people he meets. He seems to be both ‘in tune’ with the earth and with something more supernatural, able to affect both the natural and mechanical world. The cult, who are after him, might see him as divine but it is quickly apparent that Alton is something else altogether. However, whether he is an alien, or from another dimension, or representative of the next step in human evolution, or something else entirely is for you to consider as the film progresses.
There are pitch perfect performances here. Jaeden is magnificent as the otherworldly boy at the heart of this off beat road trip. I’ve never warmed to Michael Shannon before, although, admittedly he was on to a loser trying to compete with Terence Stamp as the new incarnation of Zod, maybe because I’ve always found him a bit repellent. You might think that makes him perfect casting for all of his numerous villainous roles but I want shades of grey in my villains, not caricatures and I think he’s veered into melodrama in previous roles. Here, however, given a heroic role, I was rooting for him as Alton’s Dad and certainly the finest scenes come from the interplay between father and son – “I like worrying about you,” Roy heartbreakingly responds to his son’s pleas to stop being anxious about him.
Adam Driver, so brilliant as Star Wars’ latest villain, scores further plaudits here, as a sympathetic NSA operative, and Joel Egerton excels as Roy’s friend and, to a large extent, his ‘conscience’. Only Kirsten Dunst underwhelms as Alton’s mother, so it comes as a surprise when she shares a key moment with Alton, rather than Roy, who seems to have much more of a connection with the boy and, indeed, with us.
I was reminded consistently throughout the film of Spielberg’s classic, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. As the poster to the right suggests, it shares that film’s unusual genre of ‘soulful sic-fi’. In fact, I wondered if Alton’s final destination might not be the now-iconic Devils Tower but the film rightly charts its own course.
Tragically under-promoted, weeks later, this film is still haunting me. Please, go and see it!