By Matthew Moorcroft

No Recommendation

• Directed by Garth Davis
• Starring Saorise Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre
• R

…Well, at least the leads are hot.

Foe, the latest from attempted auteur Garth Davis, begins with a premise that, at least, seems tantalizing to say the least – a future that feels dystopian and all too real, humanity leaving for parts unknown, and rural areas are entirely gone save for a few stragglers. Our lead couple are two of these stragglers and one of them is informed that they’ve been essentially drafted into working on a space station for humanity to live on. But don’t worry! There will be a robot/synthetic human/Replicant man in place to take care of the wife while he’s gone, and also you know, take care of her if you know what I mean.

The intriguing setup, which lasts almost the front half of this otherwise languid picture, is rife with interesting thematic ideas that have Davis seemingly drooling at the thought of exploring. Humanity’s own negligence on the planet? A relevant topic, if a little bit too broad for the story at hand here. Capitalism’s ability to rip apart otherwise successful couples due to work stress? Maybe, though Davis and co-writer Ian Reid’s script (adapting Reid’s own novel) feels more interested in the drafting as a “man away to war” scenario then any critique on capitalism. This leaves the replacement idea, which seems to be Davis’ main concern here. After all, why wouldn’t it be when it gives you the chance to essentially have two hot actors learn to love each other all over again?

At least, that’s what I’m guessing is Davis’ main goal here. Foe‘s biggest problem, which one of many, is it’s lack of meat on the bone. It wants to do a psychological deepdive into how something like this would end up but the end result is mostly “well it’s kind of cheating but also not really, who knows” which is the blandest possible answer for a film like this. Both Ronan and Mescal are immensely talented actors, and both are saddled with a script that really does them no favours here, particularly Ronan who despite seeming like the lead of the film gets very little to do until the third act and by then it’s too late. The script attempts to be simmeringly sexy, but comes off as awkward at best and wooden at worst. It’s a romance where the romance is basically non-existent.

And while there is a interesting twist to the events during the early third act, as it changes the dynamic of the story you were watching before hand, the film keeps going for another 20 minutes and then you realize that it really didn’t know when to stop. Davis is a handsome filmmaker yes – Erdély’s cinematography is gorgeous at points and Davis knows his camera placement for sure – but he has consistently shown a growing weakness for being unable to properly end features. And Foe is absolutely his worst one yet in that regard, limping to the finish line without so much as a shrug as we wonder what the point of Davis’ whole ordeal was.

Or maybe, that’s the whole point in of itself right? The real Foe being of our own making, the situation being only made more complicated by human nature refusing to truly understand the situation fully. Or maybe it’s the guy who basically breaks into their house and stays there, which is more likely considering the tone of the film. I really wanted to like Foe, frankly, as high concept science fiction is increasingly hard to come by and there is a lot you can do with this kind of scenario. But this really isn’t it, and is also a waste of two otherwise impressive actors’ talents. A waste I say!