Foe (2023)No matter the time or place, the quiet death of a marriage comes from taking one another for granted. Foe (2023) is a science fiction/drama set roughly forty years from now (in 2064), at a point where the Earth's resources have been all but depleted. In the wake, large corporations have spread their proverbial wings and have taken to space colonization, leaving those behind on Earth to manage for themselves. Furthermore, the movie establishes from the start that there exist humanoid replicas of people--à la the replicants from Blade Runner--created to fulfill roles where humanity is lacking. All of these details come to a head in a small farmhouse in the American Midwest, where a married couple--Henrietta a.k.a. "Hen" (Saoirse Ronan) and "Junior" (Paul Mescal)--make their home.
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Foe is adapted from the novel of the same name by Iain Reid, who co-wrote the screenplay along with director Garth Davis. Despite being a science fiction film, the focus of the movie is on the stagnant relationship between Hen and Junior, with chaos being introduced by way of a stranger named Terrance (Aaron Pierre). This man arrives late at night, appears to awaken Junior from his slumber, and evokes feelings of paranoia and apprehension in them. Terrance's mere presence is always full of portent and the subtle menace of an invader, which is essentially what he is. He explains to Hen and Junior that Junior has "won" the opportunity to go into space for...something that always remains ambiguous. (A job? A new home?) When they indicate that they are not interested, he smoothly threatens something about "conscription", implying that it isn't a choice that they are allowed to make for themselves. He works for company called "Outermore", which like many mega-corporations today, acts like its own little nation. So whether he is truly a representative of "the" government also remains ambiguous. Ultimately, Hen and Junior sort of become guinea pigs for Terrance and his mission, the scope of which only becomes evident by the end, and maybe not even then. He gives them a year to spend together before he returns and moves in with them. He also explains that when Junior goes into space, he will be "replaced" by a surrogate--one of the body doubles mentioned previously--intended to offer companionship to Hen in Junior's absence. At first, Hen is exceptionally distant from Junior, but then there is a rekindling of their love. Time passes, and the couple--married for seven years--looks back wistfully on those happier days just after being married in a rain storm. Or it would be more accurate to say that only Hen appears to recall these moments with a greater depth of feeling, while Junior appears to lose himself in work and beer. Hen sneaks off to their basement to play a neglected piano that she loves--neglected, since Junior has expressed that he "doesn't want her playing it", at least upstairs. This is where, despite its strange and fantastic pretense, the heart of Foe dwells: in understanding that marriage is an ever-evolving process of getting to know one another, and that sometimes it means growing further apart than closer together.
Foe is an emotional movie, accentuated by its bleakly gorgeous imagery, like vast fields filled with withered trees and periodic dust bowls. The farmhouse where Hen and Junior reside is over a couple of hundred years old, and there is the sensation that our protagonists are--like the rest of humanity in these final days of the Earth--merely caretakers just waiting for the end to come. This sense of fatalism is mirrored in their marriage. They trade barbed comments which they aren't too proud to share in front of a stranger. And there are the orders Junior gives to Hen about what he wants, along with Hen's aloofness and surprisingly increased familiarity with Terrance...all of which speak to an underlying discontent between them. Both go through the motions of trying to save their marriage and rekindle their love for one another. (Both also grieve over their respective trials by crying in the shower.) In an interesting touch, they save their shower water and feed it to a comparatively hearty tree that grows on their property--one of the few with any foliage at all. The camera lingers on the soil after Junior feeds his shower water--tainted by his own blood after an injury--to the tree. This, along with many other moments, is steeped in metaphor. Junior is deeply invested in his land, but to what end? Do Hen and Junior plant their roots in his ancestral home out of fidelity or fear of the unknown? This is where we start to understand the widening fracture that exists between them. Hen longs to visit faraway lands, and yet it was Junior who was chosen to venture forth into space--a prospect he vehemently resists. Hen confides her dreams to Terrance; Junior spies on them, turning her wishes into a betrayal in his eyes. Terrance is a critical agent of strife, effectively tearing down the barriers of false security and complacency which Junior and Hen have erected to shield themselves from one another. With his vaguely condescending British accent and coded language, Terrance is immediately and persistently untrustworthy; but even this assessment get called into question in rare moments, like when Hen sings with him while they get drunk on wine. This speaks to one of the best aspects of Foe, which is that the film forces us to bounce between alternating perspectives on the unfolding events. At times, we sympathize with Hen; at others with Junior. Neither is "wrong", but neither is beholden to the other. It simply comes to pass that they no longer feel that the other shares their needs; Terrance and his "proposition" just makes this erosion of their love more evident.
Recommended for: Fans of an emotional marriage drama with a science fiction backdrop. Foe delights in muddying our perspective on events--sometimes it is too vague for its own good--but its metaphor-intensive message makes for a contemplative tale that asks us to evaluate what marriage means over time. It reminds me of a saying I've heard: "Men hope that women won't change, and then they do. And women hope that men will change, and then they don't." Happiness in marriage often comes with listening and checking your expectations.
Foe is an emotional movie, accentuated by its bleakly gorgeous imagery, like vast fields filled with withered trees and periodic dust bowls. The farmhouse where Hen and Junior reside is over a couple of hundred years old, and there is the sensation that our protagonists are--like the rest of humanity in these final days of the Earth--merely caretakers just waiting for the end to come. This sense of fatalism is mirrored in their marriage. They trade barbed comments which they aren't too proud to share in front of a stranger. And there are the orders Junior gives to Hen about what he wants, along with Hen's aloofness and surprisingly increased familiarity with Terrance...all of which speak to an underlying discontent between them. Both go through the motions of trying to save their marriage and rekindle their love for one another. (Both also grieve over their respective trials by crying in the shower.) In an interesting touch, they save their shower water and feed it to a comparatively hearty tree that grows on their property--one of the few with any foliage at all. The camera lingers on the soil after Junior feeds his shower water--tainted by his own blood after an injury--to the tree. This, along with many other moments, is steeped in metaphor. Junior is deeply invested in his land, but to what end? Do Hen and Junior plant their roots in his ancestral home out of fidelity or fear of the unknown? This is where we start to understand the widening fracture that exists between them. Hen longs to visit faraway lands, and yet it was Junior who was chosen to venture forth into space--a prospect he vehemently resists. Hen confides her dreams to Terrance; Junior spies on them, turning her wishes into a betrayal in his eyes. Terrance is a critical agent of strife, effectively tearing down the barriers of false security and complacency which Junior and Hen have erected to shield themselves from one another. With his vaguely condescending British accent and coded language, Terrance is immediately and persistently untrustworthy; but even this assessment get called into question in rare moments, like when Hen sings with him while they get drunk on wine. This speaks to one of the best aspects of Foe, which is that the film forces us to bounce between alternating perspectives on the unfolding events. At times, we sympathize with Hen; at others with Junior. Neither is "wrong", but neither is beholden to the other. It simply comes to pass that they no longer feel that the other shares their needs; Terrance and his "proposition" just makes this erosion of their love more evident.
Recommended for: Fans of an emotional marriage drama with a science fiction backdrop. Foe delights in muddying our perspective on events--sometimes it is too vague for its own good--but its metaphor-intensive message makes for a contemplative tale that asks us to evaluate what marriage means over time. It reminds me of a saying I've heard: "Men hope that women won't change, and then they do. And women hope that men will change, and then they don't." Happiness in marriage often comes with listening and checking your expectations.