‘Foe Movie Review: Bizarre Scifi Drama Misses The Mark
On paper, the new film by Australian director Garth Davies looks interesting and innovative. Starring Paul Mezcal and Saoirse Ronan as a young couple, Junior and Han, Foo shows the stress and strain in their relationship after Terence, a mysterious government agent, arrives and tells them that Junior must leave Han for a year as part of a big trip. journey. . In space - to save humanity.
The stakes for the future or the state of civilization are clear: it is 2065, the world is in the grip of ecological collapse and humanity must begin to prepare for a mass exodus from planet Earth to greener pastures. green beyond the stars. But that's the limit of world-building: director Davies makes a deliberate, conscious and admirable decision to anchor the story in a deeply personal context.
“The Enemy” is not a large-scale story about the fate of humanity. While there are similar images of rural farms and apocalyptic dust storms sweeping across the plains, the film doesn't try to give us anything as epic and expansive as Christopher Nolan's Interstellar . Instead, Davies aims to take the trappings of science fiction and use them as a way to explore intimate and deeply personal topics – a moment of meditation that can be used to explore ideas about love, loyalty, trust and memory, rather than on the broad sense of science fiction. . Son. But as concrete feelings between two very different and initially unhappy people. The feeling, as Davis puts it, is “simple and urgent.”
The main idea behind Davis' film is that during Junior's year of absence, a duplicate of his artificial biomechanical intelligence will be installed in their house to care for and communicate with the chicken. The news breaks to them in the middle of the night when Terence arrives in a retro-futuristic Blade Runner -style electric car with flashing green lights. The stark sci-fi lighting contrasts sharply with the stark, desolate landscape of the Midwest, and this is perhaps one of the film's strengths: every now and then it treats the viewer to moments of truly beautiful nature and authentic.
Terence informs the duo that Junior has been selected to participate in this pioneering space program and that it will take a year for the government to decide on a single candidate. He is coming. As the official countdown begins, we begin a fragmented, poetic exploration of Han and Junior enjoying a wonderful second honeymoon. As Terence's ghostly presence fades, a new spark of passion ignites between the two and they continue their years of unbroken love.
We see footage of them at work: the apprentices as workers on an assembly line, blanching and processing thousands of chicken carcasses, while Hen tends diners in a small town down the street . A moment later, the two men were arguing at the table and tensions flared; The next minute, they were frolicking in a nearby field and making love among the rubble of agricultural infrastructure. However, Terrence eventually returns and tells them that Junior has been chosen. The harsh reality of Junior's year-long absence and replacement by an unknown artificial entity is finally revealed.
The whole film can be exciting and interesting, particularly thanks to the excellent duo between Pascal and Ronan, both extremely talented young actors. Unfortunately and surprisingly, the results are so disappointing and sometimes confusing that they make its modest 1 hour and 40 minute runtime feel like almost three hours. The biggest problem, at least at first, comes from Terence. It's clear what the filmmakers wanted to depict in these characters: a charming but unsettling stranger who arrives unexpectedly to infiltrate their home and their relationship.
However, many of the decisions Davis makes, from casting to screenplay, completely rob the characters of any sense of threat or hostility necessary to carry out the film's main plot. It's certainly not actor Aaron Beer's fault, and it's not the lack of chemistry between Hen and Junior that is so important to the film's emotional arc, Ronan or Pascal. Davis should be admired for his dedication to the type of film he wanted to make, but unfortunately, he lacks many of the elements necessary to achieve it.
There are obvious problems with the world-building: for example, there is no indication of the presence of a larger government nor any indication that Terence is acting as a lone agent. This might be an interesting concept in itself (is he really who he says he is?), but Hyun and Junior cry and scream about it and take it for granted. This seems very strange: as viewers, we have no reason to believe Terence, even though Hen and Junior seem to.
However, the emphasis is on the tone and form of the subject. Davis is recognized for his dedication to creating abstract, dreamlike, and surreal collages within the confines of science fiction. It's disappointing to have really wanted to make a film where the atmosphere was above the story, if only the writing was a little better. The dialogue between the characters is unreal to say the least. At worst, the film is bland and philosophical or contains improvisation that doesn't work.
As talented as Pascal and Ronan are, it's hard not to cringe when one of them stops looking at the horizon, turns to the other and suddenly asks, "Have you ever thought about dying?" As you might expect from a film about replacing or cloning artificial intelligence, such as the recent Black Mirror episode "Beyond the Sea" (which Pho closely resembles), identity is a major theme. The problem is that before you start questioning Junior's identity, you've already established that Foy has barely been identified.
