“It’s sad we need proof to believe in something.” “Belief is deceptive”.
The movie Foe stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. It’s a dystopian story and marriage is at the center of it. It is set in 2065. The world is overpopulated, and land has become scarce. Junior and Hen, married for seven years, live on his inherited fifth-generation farm. It’s dusty and hot. They are always sweaty. There’s not enough light. Uneasy music plays in the background. The movie feels suffocated, and the characters of Hen and Junior struggle to breathe life into their monotonous existence. The only other character that appears is Terrance, who represents the government. He is good-natured but an obtrusive presence in the couple’s life. It’s the kind of movie that keeps you thinking and guessing. The big reveal in the end is shocking but fails to generate the reaction it intended.
Junior is chosen to serve at the space station, Outermore. He has to stay there for a year as an experiment. Just so Hen is not alone, they would be leaving her with a human substitute who will be the exact copy of Junior. Junior’s memories will be installed in him and even the substitute won’t know he is a substitute. Here’s a question: Why did they have to leave her with a substitute? Wasn’t she capable of living by herself for a year. It’s because not only Junior, but Hen was also a part of their experiment. They were mere test subjects to them. The result of overpopulation when people become inconsequential.
It was subtly made clear to Junior that he did not have a choice. Terrance compared it to the old times, when if you were called to fight in the war and refused…. You can guess what would happen next. He assures Junior that Hen would be well taken care of. “In the old days, you would have left Hen with a two-dimensional photo of yourself. This is the next step. The dynamic copy of you, with living tissue, a volume and body.”
“Will he behave like Junior?”
“Just like when you first knew him.”
“A new beginning.”
Hen felt uncomfortable. Afterall, he was not technically her husband. She eventually did start to bond with him, though. Because this Junior was different. He was not a reminder of the dried attraction of her marriage. Terrance gave them one year to prepare themselves for the mission. His arrival burst the little sordid bubble they were living in. He wanted them to reveal intimate details of their marriage so they could be programmed in the AI Junior.
Junior protests that he can’t be replaced. He is repulsed by the idea of someone else living with his wife.
Then comes the final moment.
The real Junior arrives. He is shocked to see how real the substitute is. The following scene features a group of observers sitting in chairs while the camera is recording a crying (fake) Junior writhing in pain on the floor. It’s the culmination of all the emotion and passion the film was trying so hard to build. He is calling for Hen and she is equally devastated, given she knew he was a fake. She cries and wails for him shouting ‘Why?’ and ‘Shame on you’ at the spectators, while the real Junior looks at them dejected in shock and disbelief.
Apparently, they did not count on them falling in love. ‘They will write about you for years;’ Terrance tells fake Junior.
The real Junior was upset because he expected some loyalty. Hen tries to explain that she saw him in him. Their marriage doesn’t recover and eventually Hen leaves leaving a blank letter for Junior. In the end, she does come back but it’s not her. This substitute Hen is loved by Junior and they are shown having a good time together while the real Hen is on a plane looking out the window.
Apart from the utter disregard for human emotions and humanity by authorities shown in the movie, it is overly emotional at times with Hen’s contextless emotional outbursts and Junior’s constricted attempts at dealing with his future prospects. The movie tries hard but doesn’t live up to the mark.
There are multiple scenes that depict the disturbing nature of an overpopulated world. The shot of closely clamped chickens in the industry where Junior works. The metaphor for rain. In a flashback, we see that it was raining on Hen and Junior’s wedding. From the looks of it, it hasn’t been rained since then.
“What if the rain never comes?” Hen asks.
It rains again after Junior comes back. Rain is a symbol for their relationship. It rained when they were happy. Notice that the shot of their wedding is bright but the later one, is dark. Hen is dancing in the mud but Junior doesn’t join her. This was the breakdown of their marriage.
The title ‘Foe’ itself is quite unusual. Does it suggest that Hen and Junior are their own enemies? Are they each others? Or is it Terrance who is the real enemy?
Let us know in the comments your thoughts about this. Do you think AI is capable of replacing humans, or does it seem far-fetched?
You might want to check out a lesser and somewhat shallow version of this film. It is a short film called ‘Copy’ which came out in 2018. This movie follows a man who asks a company to make a lifelike copy of him to live with his wife so he can carry on his affair. The copy starts liking his wife. In a confrontation between the man and his robot, the real one is accidently murdered by his copy before he could deactivate it. The copy starts living his wife. Turns out, his wife was not so far behind him as he thought.
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