Foe struggles to give viewers what they want out of the film. The dialogue and writing can’t be saved by the strong lead performances.
Foe never aims to be something grand but somehow still leaves you unfulfilled. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, Foe is a sci-fi/thriller that has a core element rooted in something futuristic but leans on the universal element of love for the entirety of the film.
The film follows Hen, played by Ronan, and Junior, played by Mescal, on their secluded farm land. They are approached by a stranger that informs Junior of the duty he must fulfill on a space station as the human race is looking to relocate.
Due to his relocation the stranger proposes that Hen be with a biological clone of Junior while he is gone and the film goes from there. Conceptually the film is very sci-fi heavy but visually it never reaches that point. Aside from a few shots of a space station and a single futuristic car, the director never leans on the sheer scale of a sci-fi epic to tell this story. Sometimes this works to the film’s advantage and others not. Since the film isn’t massive in scale the personal elements work very well.
Foe is based in the romance between Hen and Junior – since the film takes place so far in the future the purpose of not only their relationship but existence is in question. For this element specifically the movie does an amazing job of being interesting but that is only when it starts to pick up. The first act of this movie is unbelievably slow and though the later revelations make it a little more bearable, every element but the visuals are boring for the first chunk of the runtime.
This leads into why the smaller scale sci-fi doesn’t work at times – the film is based on a futuristic problem, one that we in this day and age can’t relate to… If the movie leaned into this more it could have been successful but inferring a futuristic idea and not actually following up on it isn’t effective.
Aside from the sci-fi elements, the thriller parts of this movie work very well. The final act gets a little bit dragged out but the thrill and satisfaction of the final revelations can be compared to that of The Truman Show. There also isn’t just one ‘twist’ to the film.
The pacing gets off put by this but on a storytelling level the way the reveals were done was pretty well executed allowing for just enough emotion to seep its way through the audience while keeping us on our toes until the credits rolled.
The technical aspects of this movie elevate it as well, not making up for a lot of the lackluster writing, but making it bearable. Again, there is not much emphasis on the futuristic aspect of the story but within the confines of the farm we are treated to some beautiful shots of the characters and scenery that evolves with each story beat.
The acting from Ronan and Mescal is the saving grace for the film. In the first act not even Ronan can save the horrible dialogue but as the film progressed and I became more invested in this relationship and the thriller story, I seemingly forgot that there was even a script.
Within all of the conceptual sci-fi, Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal consistently delivered scenes that had my eyes glued to the screen. A lot of it can be noted as just screaming and punching but in the context of this horribly torturous future biological AI clone… it all makes sense. Foe as a whole just isn’t good enough to be nominated for anything but both performances deserve their flowers.
Though I loved so many elements of Foe, the writing just never lives up to everything else. The dialogue can’t even be saved by one of the best actresses today, but the leads do make the film worth a watch.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
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About Foe
Academy Award nominees Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal star in Foe, a haunting exploration of marriage and identity set in an uncertain world. 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 (Aaron Pierre) shows up at their door with a startling proposal.
Based on best-selling author Iain Reid’s novel, directed by Garth Davis, and co-written by Davis and Reid, Foe’s mesmerizing imagery and persistent questions about the nature of humanity (and artificial humanity) bring the not-too-distant future to luminous life.
