Meanwhile on Earth
Written and Directed by Jérémy Clapin
Starring: Megan Northam, Catherine Salée, Sam Louwyck
Unrated
Runtime: 89 minutes
In select theaters September 13

by Jenika McCrayer, Staff Writer

I left the screening of Meanwhile on Earth sad, frustrated, and yearning for a cigarette despite the fact that I don’t smoke. Any horror and science-fiction enthusiast would tell you that’s how you know you just witnessed something special. 

And Meanwhile on Earth is something special. The French film follows Elsa (Megan Northman), a young woman who is struggling with the disappearance of her brother Franck (Yoan Germain Le Mat), an astronaut who vanished three years ago on his first mission. While stargazing one night, Elsa receives otherworldly communication from aliens who claim to have Franck hostage. They will exchange Franck for five other humans of Elsa’s choosing, and they threaten to hold Franck forever if Elsa fails. Who knew the bargaining stage of grief could be this perilous? 

The film is a mix of real-life and animated sequences. We are to assume that the animation is of Elsa’s design as she once had dreams of becoming a comic artist before her brother’s disappearance, and Elsa sports alien antennae in her imaginary conversations with Franck aboard a spaceship. In the Director’s Note, writer and director Jérémy Clapin notes that “the animation…evokes a more childlike relationship with the world, a sensitivity belonging to the past.” The animation is beautiful and Clapin would know best, but I was struck by how it didn’t invoke a childlike wonder or bring any levity to the story. 

The “real monster is having to confront your grief” trope is…well, it’s the crux of the horror genre. Although Meanwhile on Earth leans more science fiction than horror and doesn’t offer any groundbreaking additions to this trope, I was still mesmerized by the film’s surreal take on how grief can suspend us in time and space. Franck is the missing astronaut, and yet we feel Elsa is floating aimlessly. She’s unable to move on, choosing to work for her mother at an assisted living facility rather than pursue her dreams of becoming a comic artist.  Grief permeates every frame, longing look, and every word spoken or decidedly unspoken. Elsa is frowning and chain smoking most of the time. Honestly, that’s very French.

Megan Northam provides an outstanding performance as the bereaved Elsa—it’s hard to believe that this is her debut feature starring role. Northam’s quiet nature grounds this surreal film. Northam does an incredible job of grounding a film about missing astronauts and body-swapping aliens in real, relatable pain. You desperately want her wish to come true, even though you know it won’t help in the end. Dan Levy’s score amps up the eerieness, and Clapin's writing and direction effectively pull at your heartstrings. It probably comes as no surprise that Elsa will be forced to confront her monster/Grief by the end, and you will mourn with her. You’ll leave profoundly different as I did, but with the knowledge that accepting your grief is better than any alternative on this earth or beyond.