Ela Bicera reviews ‘Foe’, the science fiction thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, directed by Garth Davis. This film premiered at the QCinema International Film Festival 2023. Spoilers are present in this review.
“Till death, do us part” is the promise we say to the love of our lives in marriage. But we may have all misunderstood the other perspective of this promise, because a dying love could also make people apart. I hope this clears things up as to why divorces are rampant in the west.
Foe (2023) shows how a couple, Henrietta and Junior, have been living secludedly in an old farm in the midwest. Until one day, a certain man approaches them with an offer that could affect their relationship.
This young couple, Hen and Junior, are living a quiet life in the country. They have become quiet in many ways, but only Hen knew that. Everything changed when Junior realized that he’s required by the government to leave the earth, in order to join the expedition on searching for another planet to live. This means that he has to leave his wife too, without anyone to confide in or share comfort with. Hen was devastated that her husband was chosen to embark on a journey without her. And so they spent the rest of the remaining days he has by making love, running around in unknown places, and making promises to escape together. Such a passionate and young love affair, until everything falls apart because it wasn’t real, or to be precise, the Junior she loved with is not real. Turns out that he’s been replaced already since the beginning of the film, with the mission to accompany Hen on Earth. And Hen has to live with the farce of going through the process of real junior’s leaving expedition, but this time with the fake one.
This film shows how a relationship that started only to submission and not communication can build up so much frustration and agony. What I saw from the beginning was just all Hen’s wishful thinking, words that she could not say or feelings she could not express to her real husband. However, the real Junior doesn’t really see or feel this, because he’s used to Hen only accepting his wishes and decisions for the both of them. It turns out that they only projected their desires to each other, and made it look like it’s love. But little did they know that they’re constantly battling one another, on whose love is much better or whose thoughts are much wiser.
It’s clear that this couple are drifting apart, so much so that I also shared the experience upon watching the film. I’m familiar with where the story is coming from, but it’s hard to connect with characters that don’t really offer anything new. I’ve seen these kinds of stories many times before, except this film has a different kind of setting. Unfortunately, even it’s only unique thing doesn’t really do much justice to the film either. I really don’t feel the vibes of the setting at all, which is in the far future of 2065. It felt as if they were just props or something that is heard from time to time on the radio. This makes it something that’s not really relevant to the film anymore, because it only focused on our main characters. It’s surprising how the author himself, Iain Reid, is involved in the screenwriting process. I haven’t read the book, but I heard that reading it is much better than seeing this film. It feels as though he was limited with his own take to the film, compared to what he put on to his book.
I was so excited to hear that Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal are going to work together on this film, because they’re my favorite actors. Turns out that as their characters are falling apart, they also did the same thing with their portrayal. There were times that they look like siblings and not lovers, and it’s kind of awkward to watch. As they touched one another, I could only feel their respect and not the passion of love at all. They tried so hard to deliver, but neither of them can really save this film. But It’s not a question of talent, rather their characters are shown in a shallow context.
The film didn’t really offer any hopes at all, despite its setting in the doom of the world. In the end, these characters are bound to make more mistakes in search of love that they think they deserved. Maybe, one way or another, we are surely meant to be with someone who’ll love us for who we are. It’s just sad that we have to witness two people making themselves miserable just because they don’t want their world to crumble.
P.S. if you want a similar tragic love story, just watch The One I love (2014) by Charlie McDowell instead. It’s much more interesting.
This film is part of the Screen International section of QCinema 2023. For more info visit here.
