Rating: 6/10 📡 🧠 🛸

A sun-drenched first-contact mystery that ultimately trips over its own ambition. Jonathan Sobol’s indie sci-fi swings big, but the execution struggles to match the premise. Isabelle Fuhrman anchors the film perfectly as a grounded, exhausted coder decoding alien signals.

Meanwhile, Dennis Quaid’s manic billionaire actively clashes with the slow-burn atmosphere. The lean 87-minute runtime keeps the puzzle moving but brutally undercuts the necessary emotional weight. Heavy exposition dumps completely overshadow the human element.

Strengths:
• Thewlis’s snarling, magnetic Perry.
• Clean practical sets that sell the isolation.
• Smart dodge around full alien reveal.
• Fuhrman’s controlled performance.
• Tight 87 minutes that doesn’t overstay.

Areas for Improvement:
• Exposition dumps kill momentum early.
• Quaid and Hutcherson feel like passengers.
• Sister backstory never earns its weight.
• Ending stays too vague to stick.
• Tension never escalates beyond debate.

An ambitious attempt at cerebral science fiction that lacks the emotional grounding to stick the landing.