'Prospect' A Review

Prospect is a scifi film about a father and daughter who travel to an alien planet in order to mine gems in its poisonous forest. The film opens on Damon(Jay Duplass) and his daughter Cee(Sophie Thatcher) in a ratty pod, part of an orbiting ship, as they prepare for a mining expedition to the hostile world. They encounter scruffy loquacious prospector Ezra(Pedro Pascal) and they must race against adversity and the clock in order to return to the docking ship before it leaves the solar system.

Duplass is sufficient as the drug-addled cold father but, as his credits indicate, he has more of an affinity for behind the camera rather than in front of it. He's not bad but he doesn't particularly distinguish himself even in the severely limited cast. Thatcher is decent as the lead, more a blank audience cipher than a character, but she gives it enough dimension and enough empathy that it works. She certainly seems to have the potential for a more dynamic performance but the script limits the amount of time spent on internal development. Pascal is the clear and present standout. With delicious, almost Shakespearean dialogue, and a rapscallion-with-a-code kind of DNA he clearly relishes the character and brings his significant charm and intelligence to full wattage in this delightful turn. Ezra is the reincarnation of a particular western/scifi archetype but he does it so well and so magnetically it feels fresh.

With a distinctly lo-fi gritty feel and significant western genre influence this fast-paced, bizarre, scifi drama has a lot to offer. Visually imaginative with tight plotting and world building relying more on inference than exposition Prospect is a sure-to-please for genre fans but may prove too nebulous for the mainstream. Released in only a few theaters in LA and NYC this past November the film is now available for rent.

See It.