Foe, 2023.
Directed by Garth Davis.
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre.
SYNOPSIS:
Hen and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal.
Taking place during the near future end times, director Garth Evans’ Foe (co-writing the script alongside Iain Reid, the author of the 2018 book) is a dull sci-fi marriage story set inside a generations-old farming house with atmosphere, clothing, and lifestyles of the past.
Perhaps this is intentional as the distant lovebirds at the center of the narrative have polar opposite perspectives regarding the changing times; Junior (Paul Mescal) wants to stay on this dying Earth and preserve the home that has been a part of his family for 200 years, pushing on as a farmer and industrial agricultural worker, whereas Henrietta (nicknamed Hen and played by Saoirse Ronan) is an unsatisfied and frustrated, bored diner waitress filled with wonder and curiosity, as evident by her interest in playing the piano in their dusty basement, which her husband opposes. In her words, music reminds him of traits he does not care for. He wants to stay; she is open to discovering what’s out there.
Still, this visual choice leaves more questions than answers, as it feels like the amount of world-building that went into the entire narrative amounts to some on-screen text before the characters are introduced. It is 2065, and climate change + other disasters have ravaged the world, leaving Metropolitan areas overpopulated and rural segments abandoned (including the deserted Midwest where our protagonists live), and action has been taken to relocate that population to a new habitable planet. Meanwhile, synthetic AI humans have been created to pick up the remaining workload on Earth. However, there is practically nothing here to immerse viewers into the future.
If you hadn’t read anything mentioned above and watched 10 seconds of the trailer, once again, I stress that you would have no idea Foe takes place in 2065. That is also not an insult, in theory, since the upside would, hopefully, be that Garth Davis cares about depicting the lives of these characters and exploring their fractured relationship before bringing in the AI story component. Unfortunately, Garth Davis only cares about the lame mind games that can be dumped on viewers through this material rather than exploring this complicated relationship and the unexpected, questionable solution to potentially saving their love.
Late one night after Hen has been profusely crying in the shower, complete with voice narration expressing that the unbreakable love she once shared with Junior has fizzled out and transitioned into consistent arguing while leaving her feeling as if she has lost a piece of herself, a government agent named Terrence (Aaron Pierre) mysteriously shows up. He informs Junior that he has been constricted to join a year-long space engineering program to test out life on other planets further. Suddenly, shocking news turns Hen’s feelings for Junior upside down. She makes love to him in the evening like he’s a soldier going off to war, and she’s afraid it will be the last time they will see each other. Other small moments reignite those romantic feelings, such as when he comments that the white shirt she wore is what she had on when they met, what they did, and how she was happy back then.
Fortunately, Junior’s departure is not immediate, and they will have one more year together before his mission. However, when Terrence returns to whisk him away, he is far more interested in preparing the couple for a synthetic AI replica that will be built, mimicking everything about her husband and keeping her company during the time away. More tantalizing is that the replica will resemble Junior when the two first met and were crazy about one another.
Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan are two of the most talented modern-day actors (and also two of the most conventionally attractive, frequently naked here and intimate, still struggling to generate investment into their complex love), giving their all here to no avail. To a degree, one feels Hen’s internal pain and emptiness, but everything else leaves viewers somewhere between baffled and confused alongside Junior but also one step ahead due to the predictability here.
What’s worse is that since Foe doesn’t give a damn about its characters, its themes are shallow and ethically questionable. Such is the case when a filmmaker spends a tediously painful amount of time trying to trick and confuse audiences when there are far more compelling elements to address and delve into. Foe has a fascinating premise ripe for commentary, but also storytelling about as substantial, intriguing, and imaginative as its visuals, which is to say not much at all. By the time Saoirse Ronan smashes a piano, you will have long wished you could have done the same thing to this movie.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
