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.
Henrietta (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior (Paul Mescal) are a couple living in rural America. They are disturbed by a man named Terrance (Aaron Pierre), a rep from a company called OuterMore, who tells the couple that they want to send Junior to live in outer space for two years. To make it up to Henrietta, they give her an AI duplicate of Junior. They are both dismissive of the idea but don’t have a say in the matter.
The greatest strength of this film is the performances of the two leads. Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal are two very talented actors. The main problem with this couple is communication; neither is willing to say how they truly feel to each other, or they dismiss what the other person has to say. It fractures their relationship in a way that may never be repaired. However, they only have each other and are unwilling to let that go.
This is a nitpick, but Ronan and Mescal play American midwesterners in this film. However, they are both Irish actors, so I don’t know why they didn’t set the film in rural Ireland. Their American accents are convincing, though I will admit it was initially strange to hear Mescal with an American accent since I’ve never seen him play an American before.
Pierre’s performance threw me off as well. You never see his character as much of a person; he feels like a corporate enforcer. I’m sure his character is supposed to come across as weird and off-putting, but it stood out and not in a good way, especially as he is going against Ronan and Mescal.
This is not the first film that has come out this year about AI. However, I was perplexed about the story beats around it in this film. The movie has a third-act twist that is not very surprising, but it makes the whole plot feel illogical. Major spoiler here: the Junior we meet at the film’s beginning is the AI, not the one we meet later in the movie. I don’t understand why they pretended he was the human one that AI would replace. That does not make narrative sense to me and is my biggest gripe with the film.
Clearly, this movie is inspired by “Blade Runner,” but it does not reach its heights. Ronan and Mescal give great performances, though the film, unfortunately, has structural issues that are apparent from the writing. I know this film is an adaptation of the novel ‘Foe’ by Ian Reid, but I feel like this film would have played better as a relationship drama without the sci-fi spin.
In Theaters Friday, October 20th
