Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre
Distributor: Amazon Prime
Runtime: 110 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Hen and Junior farm a secluded piece of land in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger arrives with a startling proposal.
From a novel by Iain Reid who collaborated with the director on the screenplay. It is a slow-burn drama, (some bloggers complaining that the fire took a long time even to kindle). However, for those who enjoy intriguing dramas, elements of the unknown, the probing of relationships, there is much to commend a careful watching of Foe.
It has a global theme – the continued destruction of planet Earth, ambitious moves towards settlements on other planets, preparations for work on space stations. It is 2065, frighteningly close to the present. There are sequences of devastated countryside (filmed in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia). However, as with global filmmaking these days, the setting for the story is the midwest of the US (and with an Australian director, Garth Davis (Lion, Mary Magdalen) two Irish and one British lead).
While it is important to focus on the futuristic, science-fiction aspects of the scenario, in many ways, they are secondary, simply offering the opportunity for the main theme, the exploration of a marriage. We see a couple who have been married for seven years. He on the property and in the house owned by his family for centuries, working in a large chicken processing plant, she working as a local waitress in a diner. The marriage is not always easy, Hen (Ronan) wondering about the affection of her husband Junior (Mescal), dreaming of something better. Junior seems to be satisfied where he is. Quite a lot of scenes between the two leads dramatising the tensions, ups and downs of the marriage. No children.
Then the science enters in the form of a government agent, Terrance (Pierre, who is very British in his delivery). The government has investigated the couple and wants Junior to spend a year on a space station, a sign of the future. He lets the couple ponder this for a year, then returns and the plan is put into action. The proposal (definitely sci-fi here with artificial intelligence and robotics) is to create exact replicas, physical, mental, emotional, to provide company for Hen during her husband’s absence.
While the initial part of the film has been a probing of the marriage, this intensifies with Terrance’s presence, interrogations, tests, trying to understand each of the characters, the relationship, so that the substitute will be a proper companion.
While there is scientific success, there are some emotional complications, building to a dramatic conclusion, surprising dramatics, and the final solution which we may have been anticipating.
There is little futuristic technology seen in the film, that being kept to the very end. Rather, this is a psychological study of two people in a futuristic setting and challenge. And a slow-burn.
(Recently, with the same time sitting, a more elaborate conflict between humans and AI creations was seen in The Creator.)
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