How far can technology go to help us find true love? "Fingernails" took that idea seriously and delivered an intriguing multi-layered storyline that spoke more to the human condition than our propensity to rely on tech for everything, including for the pursuit of love.
However, several parts of the movie failed to impress. Sometimes, the main characters felt like they were bored and their minds were wandering. This countered the potential romantic promise of the movie.
Jessie Buckley as Anna was a revelation, though. I have admired her acting for years and she did not disappoint in this one. As natural as it was empathic, Buckley lent her character a humanity worth watching.
Riz Ahmed as Amir and Jeremy Allen White as Ryan both did noteworthy work in "Fingernails". They were the men in Anna's life and led to her feeling conflicted about which way to turn. In a world where true love dies as soon as it is born, Anna certainly had a hard choice ahead of her before her own brief window closed.
The controversial technology at the heart of this story both thrilled and chilled me. It was at the fictional 'Love Institute' where, ironically, Anna found someone she liked (Amir) more than her current 'positive match' boyfriend Ryan.
This institute saw people undergoing relationship tests to help reduce their chances of entering an unhappy marriage, and by extension face a disastrous divorce down the line. It was all fine on paper, but then people are a little more complicated than that.
Some of the elements felt a tad unnecessary, like the nail pulling, or overly simplistic like some of the smell and French-song tests. But it made sense to an extent, considering the already strange nature of romance itself and how two people don't precisely know what drew them to each other in the first place.
About the nail pulling, I really liked the idea. It sat well with the movie's title, which revealed how a person in love experiences cardiac or blood-hormone changes that reflect, in a biological fashion, under their fingernails.
I don't know how much of that is scientifically true, but I wish they used a non-invasive method in the movie to quantify that possibility.
"Fingernails" nevertheless took an interesting approach to telling what was, to all intents and purposes, a love story. It proved that no matter what you do or how many tests you take, the heart wants what the heart wants.
However, several parts of the movie failed to impress. Sometimes, the main characters felt like they were bored and their minds were wandering. This countered the potential romantic promise of the movie.
Jessie Buckley as Anna was a revelation, though. I have admired her acting for years and she did not disappoint in this one. As natural as it was empathic, Buckley lent her character a humanity worth watching.
Riz Ahmed as Amir and Jeremy Allen White as Ryan both did noteworthy work in "Fingernails". They were the men in Anna's life and led to her feeling conflicted about which way to turn. In a world where true love dies as soon as it is born, Anna certainly had a hard choice ahead of her before her own brief window closed.
The controversial technology at the heart of this story both thrilled and chilled me. It was at the fictional 'Love Institute' where, ironically, Anna found someone she liked (Amir) more than her current 'positive match' boyfriend Ryan.
This institute saw people undergoing relationship tests to help reduce their chances of entering an unhappy marriage, and by extension face a disastrous divorce down the line. It was all fine on paper, but then people are a little more complicated than that.
Some of the elements felt a tad unnecessary, like the nail pulling, or overly simplistic like some of the smell and French-song tests. But it made sense to an extent, considering the already strange nature of romance itself and how two people don't precisely know what drew them to each other in the first place.
About the nail pulling, I really liked the idea. It sat well with the movie's title, which revealed how a person in love experiences cardiac or blood-hormone changes that reflect, in a biological fashion, under their fingernails.
I don't know how much of that is scientifically true, but I wish they used a non-invasive method in the movie to quantify that possibility.
"Fingernails" nevertheless took an interesting approach to telling what was, to all intents and purposes, a love story. It proved that no matter what you do or how many tests you take, the heart wants what the heart wants.