Natalie Portman heads straight for 'Annihilation'
Several years ago, writer-director Alex Garland turned sci-fi on its head with “Ex Machina,” a unique thriller that put forth a very strong female protaonist – albeit a synthetic one. He’s now on a reasonably similar track with “Annihilation,” adapted from Je VanderMeer’s novel and sending Natalie Portman into a parallel world fraught with danger.
The story plays out as an extended ashback, with the biologist portrayed by Portman being debriefed about what happened in an environment known as the Shimmer. As the many references to her past demonstrate, she went there with several other women – including Gina Rodriguez, alias television’s “Jane the Virgin,” and Jennifer Jason Leigh – to determine just what happened to the Portman character’s husband (Oscar Isaac, now with a connection to the “Star Wars” saga, like Portman) who returned from the Shimmer almost catatonic.
Suffice it to say that mutated versions of such creatures as alligators have something to do with it, but the real key could lie with the DNA of visitors to that alternate locale. As with “Ex Machina,” that aspect cleverly lifts “Annihilation” out of being driven strictly by physical action and into more cerebral and philosophical considerations.
That’s likely what appealed to Portman, who’s not known for doing action simply for action’s sake. Such titles as “Black Swan” (her Oscar earner) and the relatively recent “Jackie” attest to her norm, and while she does have to get down and dirty in some pivotal scenes of “Annihilation,” she also gets considerable room for discussion of the human condition ... and that allows her innate intelligence to shine through.
The look of “Annihilation” also deserves mention and credit, since a location with the name “Shimmer” infers certain visual representations. The craftspeople live up to that promise, adding an eerie veneer to the saga that also channels “Ex Machina” to a certain degree. Watching that film, you had the sense that something about the world it depicted was a little “off,” and Garland and his team deploy that technique well again.