Meanwhile on Earth main backdrop
Meanwhile on Earth main poster

Meanwhile on Earth

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6.2/10 • 32

2024-07-031h 29m

DramaScience Fiction

Elsa and Franck used to be close siblings, but everything changed when Franck’s space mission went awry. 3 years have passed since his mysterious disappearance, and 23-year-old Elsa is having trouble moving on with her life. One day, an unidentified life form contacts her, offering to bring her big brother back to Earth. But there is a price to pay…

Directors
Jérémy Clapin
Editors
Jean-Christophe Bouzy

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Megan Northam

    Megan Northam

    Elsa

  2. Dimitri Doré

    Dimitri Doré

    La Voix (voice)

  3. Sébastien Pouderoux

    Sébastien Pouderoux

    Voix de Franck (voice)

  4. Catherine Salée

    Catherine Salée

    Annick

  5. Sam Louwyck

    Sam Louwyck

    Daniel

  6. Roman Williams

    Roman Williams

    Vincent

  7. Sofia Lesaffre

    Sofia Lesaffre

    Audrey

  8. Nicolas Avinée

    Nicolas Avinée

    Augustin

  9. Yoann Thibaut Mathias

    Yoann Thibaut Mathias

    Jordan

Reviews1

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Brent Marchant Avatar

Brent Marchant

Feb 6, 2025

5/10

It’s regrettable when a filmmaker’s reach exceeds his or her grasp. Such is the case, unfortunately, in writer-director Jérémy Clapin’s second feature outing, an ambitious but failed attempt at making a profound statement about the pain of loss and efforts to overcome it when an opportunity presents itself. The film follows the mysterious disappearance of astronaut Franck Martens (Sébastien Pouderoux) while on a seemingly routine space mission, leaving behind his grieving family, most notably his younger sister, Elsa (Megan Northam). She misses her brother terribly but is astounded one evening when she inexplicably appears to be able to communicate with him telepathically. No sooner does she resume contact with him, however, when he disappears again, but this time his voice is supplanted by that of a mysterious alien entity (Dimitri Doré), who says that Franck can be returned home but for a price – the securing of five human hosts for the entity and four colleagues to enable them to come to Earth. Elsa is thus thrust into a moral dilemma: How can she bring about her brother’s return while willfully subjecting five innocent individuals to this kind of involuntary abduction? Who should she choose for such a fate? And is this kind of ransom too high a price to pay? These are intriguing questions, a sound basis for a thoughtful morality play. Sadly, however, the execution of this story is clumsily handled. The filmmaker serves up a story that awkwardly seeks to blend science fiction, horror, psychological drama and metaphysics in a single vehicle, one whose narrative plays more like a collection of concept notes than even a first draft of a working script. The result is a disjointed mix of literal, metaphorical and symbolic themes and imagery, including both animation and live action, that lends itself more to inscrutable ambiguity than meaningful clarity. Perhaps this could have been rectified with a longer runtime to yield more extensive and more cohesive development, but its scant 1:23:00 runtime makes the picture feel rushed and somewhat hurriedly patched together, almost as if the creators tried to incorporate whatever elements they could before the production funding ran out. It’s a shame that this project has turned out as it has, given that it seems to stem from noble intents. However, as it stands now, this is more muddle than insight, a film that falls far short of its lofty, high-minded potential.

Media

  • Meanwhile on Earth poster
  • Meanwhile on Earth poster
  • Meanwhile on Earth poster
  • Meanwhile on Earth poster
  • Meanwhile on Earth poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
French
Budget
--
Revenue
--
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