Jonah is a sci-fi (or sci-fi adjacent) film with an interesting – if not overly unique – idea. It’s about the investigation of claims of alien abduction. In this case, a mother says her child was taken briefly by aliens and then returned… which explains his near catatonic state. The investigators are suspicious. What is the truth?

It’s a movie not without suspense and mystery. For about half of the film, I was pretty engaged with where it was going. But the longer the film rolls on, the fewer interesting things it has to say. Or, maybe more accurately, the more it goes over the same materials until you realize they are just trying to run out their 90 minute clock. Why not a shorter film? It’d have kept my interest the whole way through.

The film wants to ask questions about Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy or big sci-fi ideas like future wars and the end of all life. It often doesn’t take a side and just introduces arguments only to introduce alternative arguments later. Which is fine for maintaining suspense until you start to wonder if the writers even have taken a side.

But once the film finally picks that side, it seems like it doesn’t know what to do with it. OK… we’ve collapsed the wave function and now know the truth… but so what? For all the movie does with its ideas and resolutions, it could just as easily done something else.

I was rooting for this film to get it right and sometimes it does. But also the third act fumbles badly and left me bored and wanting more meat. It’s not a terrible film though… it has some ideas and creative mysteries. It’s sometimes a decent film.

Score: 71