The Incomer Review: A Charming Scottish Fairy Tale Elevated by Gayle Rankin’s Performance

“Defend the isle, allow no incomer, survive.” So goes the simple directive that Isla and Sandy (Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke, respectively) adhere to the absolute letter from their late father. The siblings are on an otherwise uninhabited Orkney Island, in Scotland, a dramatic landscape shot beautifully by Pat Golan, upon which they live, hunting for gulls for sustenance, and relying on nothing and no one but each other and what they can find on the land. Unless, of course, they find something that clearly once belonged to a “mainlander,” as when Sandy finds a long red rubber dildo that he mistakes for either a weapon or a toy. Things are mostly peaceful for the duo until the soft-spoken, shut-in, pencil-pushing Daniel arrives to forcibly relocate them (Domhnall Gleeson).

The Incomer is a sweet and charming adult fairy tale whose primary characteristic, a twee and cheeky sense of humor, is both its appeal and its achilles’ heel. It’s a darling movie brought to life by a star-turning performance from Gayle Rankin, but there’s not a ton under the hood. One can sense the growing pains of debut feature director Louis Paxton, whose quirky sensibility doesn’t always translate well to a longer film. But in its simple social dynamic, there is hidden a warm message about the nature of storytelling itself — and how, sometimes, our greatest struggle is to extricate ourselves from the stories our parents, and our nations, tell us to keep us safe. Perhaps safety is overrated.

Isla and Sandy have been surviving on this isle for the last thirty years, ever since their father “gave himself to the sea” as a sacrifice to the gods to keep them away from greedy mainland thieves. In this fable by which the two religiously live, “mainlanders” have lured away the islanders with false promises of “sweet treats” and shiny lives in the technologically advanced cities, a fable which is communicated to us in cute little animated sequences. But the siblings believe this luring away to be an evil entity that they have to, by violent means if necessary, resist.

Their mutual perception of this is challenged by Daniel’s arrival, since Gleeson’s character, like the actor himself, seems to be a kind-hearted and innocent man without nefarious intent. But rules are rules, and the siblings conspire to capture and kill him, which they almost do, until Daniel realizes at the 25th hour that he could probably just lie and tell them anything. Like, say, that he is a wizard who has magic powers. Oh, you want evidence? How about the fact that he can play dramatic music from his phone and take pictures of them?

The Incomer borrows a lot of comic sensibility from the overwhelming influence of Everything Everywhere All At Oncedirectors The Daniels, but it also has a calm, localized humor similar to last year’s The Ballad of Wallis Island, It’s a chamber piece, mostly, and through these three characters, all of whom are distinctly isolated in their own ways, Paxton questions the cost of progress as well as the cost of avoiding it. There’s comfort in accepting the ideas, however regressive they may be, that our elders tell us. But there’s also comfort in going along with whatever newfangled ideas modernized society deems necessary.

Watching the trio bond is fun enough, but Paxton complicates things by making it turn into a non-believable love triangle. Perhaps it makes sense that two cave-dwellers would try and glom onto the first new person they see in their entire adult lives, but the movie is more exciting when it is a platonic connection rather than a romantic one. All three characters’ sexuality feels thinly drawn.

The film works best when sticking to its gentle poetics. In an especially moving and surprising moment, the siblings initiate Daniel onto the island by encouraging him to stand on the cliff and pretend that he can fly. It’s a little thing, but because Paxton has so well established him as a person that avoids conflict of all shapes and sizes, it’s exhilarating to watch Daniel dance on the edge of life and death. There are moments in The Incomer that hit with the cogency of a Billy Collins poem. It’s less successful when it succumbs to its own cuteness, which it does most through Sandy; O’Rourke is a very likable actor, but his character’s lack of knowledge comes at the expense of rational thought.

But, the film mostly does work, and a huge reason is that Rankin is aces. The House of the Dragon actor has long since established herself, but this may be her finest turn. She makes a goofy film feel grounded. Her desires are palpable, her pain reaches off the screen. So much of our lives are determined by the stories we are told in childhood, and watching Isla learn and unlearn in the same moment is touching. Beautiful, even. Sure, it’s fun to watch Sandy learn how to walk. But more gratifying is watching Isla learn how to fly.

The Incomer screened at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.