The Brother From Another Planet

Day 139 - 5/19/09 - Movie #138

BEFORE: This movie got a lot of indie buzz when it came out - and I think it was the first major role for Joe Morton. For fun, check out his IMDB page - before this movie, all he had on his resume were a couple tiny soap opera roles and episodes of "Sanford and Son" and "What's Happening". After this movie, his career hit the ground running and he hasn't stopped working since...

THE PLOT: A mute alien is chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem in this thought-provoking cult classic.

AFTER: This film seems (to me) what "E.T." would have been like if it had been directed by Spike Lee instead of Steven Spielberg. (I know, John Sayles directed it, not Spike Lee - but still...) What sells this movie is Morton's blank expression - when he roams New York, it's like we're all seeing it for the first time, through his eyes. It's probably very tough for an actor to play a mute character - fortunately for the alien (and us) everyone he encounters is very talkative. The Brother also has the good fortune to make it up to Harlem, where he blends in better, and he's able to land a job fixing broken arcade games and boomboxes. There are messages here about racial politics, drug abuse, immigration - but the movie is extremely slow-paced, and the special-effects budget was about $1.50. It's a long wait for a payoff confrontation with some alien bounty hunters (?) One of the "Men in Black" is played by the director, John Sayles, and the other is a young (well, younger) David Strathairn. Also watch for a young Fisher Stevens playing a guy on the subway doing a card trick - for me, that was the highlight of the whole film.

RATING: 4 out of 10 broken radios