ELIO is touching and entertaining but suffers due to the narrative

Elio (English) Review 2.0/5 & Review Rating

Director: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina

Elio Movie Review Synopsis:
ELIO is the story of a young man who accidentally becomes the Ambassador of Earth. Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) is an orphan. He stays with his maternal aunt, Olga (Zoe Saldaña), who works on a military base observing space debris. Elio has withdrawn into a shell due to the death of his parents. But a visit to a space museum and learning about the possibility of extra-terrestrial beings gets him excited. The story moves a few years ahead. Elio is now doing better and his life’s mission is to be captured by aliens! He uses a ham radio to try to communicate but to no avail. At his aunt’s workplace, he overhears from a conspiracy theorist named Gunther Melmac (Brendan Hunt) that aliens might exist. He uses Melmac’s device to send a message to the aliens, leading to a power outage in the facility. Olga almost loses her job and fed up with Elio’s behaviour, she sends him to a camp. At the camp, Elio is confronted by bullies. Suddenly, an alien ship appears and takes him away, much to his delight. Elio soon arrives at the Communiverse, a place where aliens of all kinds bring knowledge from their own worlds to share with others. Elio realizes that they received the message that he sent from Melmac’s device. They assume that he’s the Ambassador of the Earth, not realizing that he’s just a kid. Meanwhile, Elio decides to solve a conflict between Communiverse and the dangerous ruler of Hylurg, Grigon (Brad Garrett). What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Elio Movie Story Review:
Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina and Julia Cho’s story is out of the box. Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones’ screenplay is captivating but has its share of minor blemishes. The dialogues are entertaining.

Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina’s direction is decent. It is a relatable fare as it touches upon depression, bullying, etc, too. On the other hand, a few scenes are amusing like Elio dying to get abducted by the aliens, Elio’s duplicate on Earth, Elio using Glordon (Remy Edgerly) as a ‘bargaining chip’. The finale is engaging.

On the flipside, the transformation of Elio from an introverted depressed kid to one chasing aliens is sudden for the viewers, even though the transformation happens over the years in the film. The humour is limited; a film like this ideally should have had laugh-out-loud scenes. The whole idea of Elio reaching Communiverse and other space-related aspects can be difficult to comprehend for adults and more so for kids, the target audience. The fact that there are three directors shows – a few scenes seem a bit disjointed and are executed differently from the rest of the scenes. Lastly, the buzz is pretty limited in India.

Elio Movie Review Performances:
The voiceovers that truly work big time are those of Yonas Kibreab and Remy Edgerly. Brad Garrett comes next followed by Zoe Saldaña. Brendan Hunt, Jameela Jamil (Questa), Shirley Henderson (OOOOO) and Jake Getman (Caleb) also do well.

Elio movie music and other technical aspects:
Rob Simonsen’s music has a Disney feel. Derek Williams and Jordan Rempel’s cinematography is spectacular. Harley Jessup’s production design is top-notch. The animation matches global standards, as expected. Anna Wolitzky and Steve Bloom’s editing is too fast-paced.

Elio Movie Review Conclusion:
On the whole, ELIO is a touching and entertaining saga. However, it suffers due to narrative and pacing issues and a lack of sufficient humour. At the box office, it’ll face tough competition from another family-friendly film, SITAARE ZAMEEN PAR.