The aspect of a low budget space film about first contact comes down to how the connection works in retrospect. "Orion", directed by Jack Bouwer works best as a two-hander based in one small room where the notion of truth is whatever might be said even if it is not. Drew Van Ecker plays one side of the duo as a member of a deep space team who is supposedly the sole survivor of a deep space mission that returned to Earth. There is a concept of some cargo that came back with them. He is interrogated by Jim played by Andrew McCarthy). McCarthy doesn’t act as much any more but here, especially in the first half of the film, he offers some of the coolest work he has done in a while. Jim and Apollo (Van Ecker) go back and forth with a bit of strategy (and likely a little bit of amnesia) but it is also a question of what Jim really wants to know and what he is representing. We see brief and aesthetically well represented flashbacks of what Apollo might be remembering from the mission.
Despite its taught pacing and good acting however there are some plot holes which might involve tracking, some mission context and the opposing forces at play. The location and environment becomes more defined as the film goes on but certain details like a relative and plausible deniability idea lack a certain preciseness. When it gets to the final act, "Orion" does pull it back together but it does change the narrative into something different. The effects are used sparingly but to good avail (especially at the end) despite the resolution being fairly middle of the road. But that said, director Bouwer creates quite a bit with limited resources and his two leads in Van Acker and especially McCarthy are definitely game Debby Ryan also deserves a mention for playing two sides of a similar coin fairly well. Apollo might be smarter than his interrogators give him credit for but what is interesting is the practical application of the science despite the lack of what might be inferred as real world consequences. "Orion" is a taut and fun ride with some good performances despite some intermittent plot holes that prevent it from fully closing the loop. 85%/B
By Tim Wassberg
