Alpha Movie Review: An adventurous Buddy story at heart

Alpha Movie Review - This vividly imagined primeval Buddy encounter, a wonderful depiction of how the friendship between man and dog might have originated.

Film: Alpha
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leonor Varela, Natassia Malthe, Jens Hulten, Priya Rajaratnam, Mercedes De La Zerda, Johannes Johannesson, Spencer Bogaert, Marcin Kowalczyk
Director: Albert Hughes
Writer: Daniele Wiedenhaupt, Dan Wiedenhaupt
Rating: 

A hugely affecting, prehistoric survival adventure drama directed by Albert Hughes from his own story, scripted by Daniele Sebastian Weidenhaupt, this movie about a wounded young man and his attempts to tame the wild, is set in Europe, some 20,000 years ago.

A hunting tribe led by Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) speaking in an unknown tongue, on a seasonal expedition is hindered by a rampaging herd of wild buffalo. Tau's young son, Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a reluctant participant in the tribes hunting ritual, gets hurled off a cliff by an angry buffalo. The tribe, unable to reach him and fearsome about the oncoming harsh winter, leaves him for dead. The rest of the narrative highlights his struggle against nature, surviving against all odds with the help of an injured lone wolf and eventually finding his way back home.

The non-linear narrative replete with flashbacks highlighting Keda's tender non-violent personality, lead up to a coming-of-age transformation from a fish-out-of-water survival tale. There's not much new to the story elements used here but the treatment is undoubtedly affecting without being ingratiating or fickle. The twist at the finale, also adds power to the visual bounty. Strikingly shot in British Columbia with heavy doses of C.G.I., Albert Hughes solo effort, almost a transcendental composition of the natural world, is engaging and imminently likable. The 3-D technology used here has a greater depth of frame and allows for multiple levels of engagement. This vividly imagined primeval Buddy encounter, a wonderful depiction of how the friendship between man and dog might have originated, is an interesting aside in the history between the two species.

Watch Alpha's trailer:

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