MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘Stranded’ a Space-Alien Fable

Most of the dingy little science-fiction fable “Stranded” (selected theaters) takes place in such unrelieved gloom and darkness that you may need to call for the house lights to find your popcorn. Everyone’s face is almost always emerging from shadows--and the storytelling is muted too: slow, measured, overly cautious.

The film mixes up the plots of “E.T.” and “The Desperate Hours” in a peculiar little morality tale of gentle extraterrestrials mistaken for criminals and besieged in a rural home by the local police. There are trigger-happy characters on both sides: a lynch mob outside and, inside, a black robot that looks like a mini-Darth Vader and is quick to blast away any potential enemies of his masters, who resemble the undernourished, soulful-eyed children in Margaret and Walter Keane’s paintings.

The mood is similar to an old “Twilight Zone” episode, or to movies like “Starman” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” The aliens, seeking a refuge from pursuing assassins, have only benevolent intentions, constantly misread by the bickering humans.

“Stranded” (MPAA-rated PG-13, for violence) does have the virtue of telling a clear-cut, coherent story--and, refreshingly, it doesn’t rely on grotesquerie or bloodshed. But there’s nothing particularly distinctive about the situations, dialogue, or Tex Fuller’s direction. And the better performances--Maureen O’Sullivan as the sugary old lady harboring the aliens, or Joe Morton as the beleaguered sheriff--offer few surprises. Ultimately, the movie is like a stranger passing in the dark, murmuring a few overfamiliar lines, then vanishing in a crackle of cliches and rocket fire.