I Will Find You: Find It!

I probably say this about every Harlan Coben series I review here (11 and counting so far) that it's the best of all the adaptations of Harlan Coben novels I've had the pleasure to see (I haven't read any of them), but (a) it's true, and (b) I Will Find You, just up on Netflix, in its high-powered got-you-by-the-throat action and intricate moebius-strip complexity of the characters and their loyalties, is in a class of its own.

In fact, I don't recall ever seeing such a roster of characters with questionable loyalties to the man in prison for killing his son, except in some earlier Coben works, and those characters were far fewer in number.  As you'll know from seeing the trailer (and there'll be no other spoilers in this review other than what's in the trailer), David Burroughs (the father) didn't do it.  And when a current photo turns up in which his son Matthew is alive and well, I  Will Find You is off and running.  Everyone is suspect in one way or another for doing what really happened, just about every friend and relative and supporter has conflicting interests, and may or may not be part of why Burroughs landed in prison.  Even the villains may or may not be responsible for what happened to Burroughs.  The Boston police are riddled with bad guys -- nothing new about that -- and the FBI, with a father and daughter somehow working together, bring what we see in the excellent FBI series on CBS to a new level.

A story like this takes great acting, and I Will Find You has it.   I haven't seen much if any of Avatar, but I did see him in Titan, and Sam Worthington as David Burroughs does a fine job.   I have indeed seen and much enjoyed Britt Lower in Severance, and she's dynamite in this new series.   Jonathan Tucker, whom I first saw in The Black Donnellys and then in Debris, brings his usual intensity as Adam, one of the complex cops. Milo Ventimiglia, whom I first saw in Heroes, and Madeleine Stowe, whom I first saw in 12 Monkeys (the movie), play crucial roles.  Chi McBride, whom I first saw who knows how many years ago in I, Robot, and Logan Browning, whom I don't recall seeing before, were memorable as the father-and-daughter FBI team.  And it's interesting, at least to me, that everyone other than Browning have major science fiction roles in their past.  If there are any science fiction producers reading this, I'd recommend they cast Logan Browning for a major action role.  She's equally adept at leaping tall buildings and sassy conversation.

Today is Father's Day, and I'm looking forward to seeing my family.   I Will Find You was put up on Netflix just a few days ago.   In addition to its other virtues, the series makes a good testament to a father's unbending devotion to his son.

 

The Titan: Turning the Tables on Humans in the Cosmos

A common scenario in both science fiction and projections of what future science will do to help humans move out into the cosmos is terraforming: we use our technology to make an alien world more habitable, more comfortable, to humankind.  This could include the moderating the temperature, increasing the oxygen, adjusting the gravity, that sort of thing.

Much less frequent is modifying the human being to make us more comfortable on an alien world.  "The Enchanted Village" by A. E. Von Vogt from the early 1950s, which I read as a kid, is a great example, and has always stayed with me. An astronaut lands and come close to dying on Mars.  The environment just doesn't work for him.  As he reaches the end of his rope, he suddenly feels better.  Mars has somehow changed him into an intelligent organism that can flourish on its surface.

The Titan, which just started streaming on Netflix at the end of March, is a similar kind of a story, with the big difference that humans here on Earth are deliberately trying to genetically modify a select group so that they can live in the icy confines of Titan - Saturn's largest room - in comfort.  The result is a strong narrative, incorporating elements of horror as well as military science fiction.

One weakness is a change of character in Prof. Collingwood - well played by Tom Wilkinson, who plays everything well - which doesn't seem completely motivated. (This is a part of larger problem in movie-making, in which professors are often poorly conceived.)  The science is also a little fuzzy - or, at least, specifically what is being done to Lt. Rick Janssen (played by Sam Worthington, last seen by me in Manhunt: Unabomber, where he also did a good job), and how it all fits or doesn't fit together to make Titan habitable for him.

But the story (by Arash Amel, screenplay by Max Hurwitz - writer for Unabomber and Hell on Wheels - and directed by Lennart Ruff) still works, and Taylor Schilling does a fine job as a doctor who is also Rick's wife.  So, all in all, I'd recommend this.  At its best, the movie explores the question of how much of our humanity we're literally willing to sacrifice to go out and live in the stars.  And the timing is great, since this Monday I'll be convening a one-day conference (free admission) at Fordham University on the intersection of space travel and religion, Touching the Face of the Cosmos, with a Keynote by Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory.  We'll no doubt be exploring some similar issues.