The Incomer review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 10.06.26
★★★½ 3.5 / 5
Spoiler-free review
A council foot-soldier ferries an eviction notice to a remote Scottish island and stumbles into a prickly, hilarious standoff with two self-raised siblings who’ve defended their patch of rock for decades. The film lives in that three-person push-pull: Domhnall Gleeson’s beautifully flustered bureaucrat gingerly negotiating, then bonding, with Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke’s endearingly feral caretakers. As farce, it’s nimble and very funny; as policy critique, it keeps asking how kindly to evict rather than whether to evict at all—a limitation that nags. Still, the chemistry, spry pacing, and sharp performances make this an easy recommendation.
Full review — contains spoilers
This is an amusing dark comedy about two orphaned siblings who have spent decades living on a remote Scottish island, defending it against anybody who turns up. Their parents died when they were young, and they've largely raised themselves. Their understanding of the outside world is limited.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Daniel, a council worker given the unfortunate assignment of personally delivering a government eviction notice. Gayle Rankin and Grant O'Rourke play the siblings, Isla and Sandy, who capture Daniel upon his arrival and then gradually become more interested in him than in each other. He's an unwelcome visitor, but he's also the most exciting thing that's happened to them in quite some time.
The story revolves around the three-way dynamic between them. Daniel keeps trying to convince each of them, in turn, to leave the island and join civilization, while they remain understandably skeptical of a civilization whose first contribution to their lives is an eviction notice. Over time, he grows attached to them, becomes part of their daily routine, and finds it difficult to carry out the job he was sent to do.
The actors are all fantastic here, and Gleeson is particularly effective as this awkward guy trying to manage a situation he is completely unprepared for.
My larger question was why the government needed to remove these people in the first place. The plan involves turning their island over to conservation, but they're already living there with relatively little connection to anybody else. What exactly is being accomplished by kicking them out? Could they have a legal right to remain? Why does the government's preferred use of the island automatically take priority over the lives they've built on it?
I felt like the movie was more interested in whether the officials handled the eviction kindly than in whether they should be doing it at all. Being more understanding and accommodating doesn't really answer the underlying question. These people have spent their lives there. Why are they being moved?
That bothered me, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the film. This is farce, and it doesn't expect us to treat everything happening as entirely plausible. The relationships are entertaining, the performances are strong, and a lot of very funny things happen. I had a great time with it. Recommended.