Beauty beyond skin deep was an underlying message I picked up from this romantic science fiction film. My friends have heard me say so many times, the body is rented. I have always been fascinated to see old photographs of long term partners. To see how their physical appearance could have dramatically changed but not the connection between their hearts is something I truly admire. Stuff like hair color, weight and height are simply frivolous decorations compared to a person’s soul in my opinion. The story in this movie could really have taken the concept of a person’s identity and expanded it. An alien race arrived on earth to inhabit the bodies of humans, replacing their individuality with their own. The process was painless and efficient most of the time; unless the person was strong minded. One such person was Melanie, played by Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones). She had made a promise to see her little brother Jamie, played by Chandler Canterbury (Knowing, Repo Man), again. Would Melanie’s love for him and boyfriend Jared, played by Max Irons (Being Julia, Red Riding Hood), be stronger than an alien invasion? This was not the first time mankind has been invaded in the movies. However, the script was so cheesy and flat; I was bored for the majority of the film. With the writers having Diane Kruger (Unknown, National Treasure) as the Seeker, William Hurt (Dark City, A History of Violence) as Uncle Jeb and Frances Fisher (Titanic,Unforgiven) as Maggie in the cast; it was a shame they did not do some rewriting to give these actors more meatiness to their characters. I have not read Stephenie Meyer’s book this movie was based on, but I suspect it may play like a soap opera as did this film. Saoirse’s acting has been something I have respected. She gave it a good try here, but by the end of the movie I believe she really was not running away from aliens; she was running to get out of this dud. A couple of brief scenes with blood.

1 3/4 stars