Garnering some significantly average reviews from critics, a lukewarm at best reception from general audiences and failing to make a dent in any facet financially, it's safe to say Australian director Garth Davis promising on paper adaptation of Ian Reid's book is one of 2023's most noteworthy examples of a failure to launch.
A homegrown talent that has some runs on the board with features such as Lion and work on renowned TV series Top of the Lake, Davis is a talent in his own right and armed with some solid sci-fi infused source material and two of the hottest Hollywood performers in the forms of Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal one would've been right to suspect that Foe might have been on of 2023's critical/awards darlings but sadly there's a reason as to why this film never took off in the way optimists may have expected it to.
Set in the year 2065 where as you would expect Earth is struggling to maintain itself and human life with new ways of life both on and off planet starting to emerge to plug the holes mankind has created for itself, Foe has an intriguing backdrop and a potentially potent central narrative centred around the marriage of Ronan's Hen and Mescal's Junior and the issues they begin to deal with when Aaron Pierre's mysterious Terrance arrives on their doorstep on fateful evening but the whole film is one that is left as nothing more than the what might have been.
Without entering into spoiler territory, with the films most interesting moments and delivery occurring in its later stages where much of the arduous early moments are better contextualised with the knowledge we get given in the films latter stages, no amount of solid work from Ronan or Mescal can mask the fact much of Foe's scripting and delivering needed far more refinement with many likely to mentally switch off well before Davis's film finally starts to explain itself in more detail.
While the films final stage explanations showcases just what type of film Foe wanted to be it's also not enough to make up for the fact there's far too much in Davis's offering that isn't up to standard, far too much exposition that adds little to the endgame and not enough emotional connection to two characters played by more than capable performers, making Foe a film that keeps you mostly at arms length rather than drawing you in and gripping you tight into its broader themes and explorations of the human conditions.
What Foe is delving into the questions it raises around certain well-covered sci-fi topics isn't exactly treading out new ground but they're weighty themes and subjects that should've provided us with a far more noteworthy film when you consider who is involved in bringing it too life, leaving Foe as it stands as a barely passable attempt to gift us with a moving and contemplative experience that squanders its cast and concept on a film you're going to forgot without much of a second-thought.
Final Say -
There's snippets in Foe of the film it might have been and Mescal and Ronan are both as ever entirely watchable but they much like us the audience are letdown by a film that fails to grasp what it is leaving things far to late for an attempt to salvage much of the averageness that has transpired for much of its runtime.
2 1/2 basement pianos out of 5.
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)
A homegrown talent that has some runs on the board with features such as Lion and work on renowned TV series Top of the Lake, Davis is a talent in his own right and armed with some solid sci-fi infused source material and two of the hottest Hollywood performers in the forms of Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal one would've been right to suspect that Foe might have been on of 2023's critical/awards darlings but sadly there's a reason as to why this film never took off in the way optimists may have expected it to.
Set in the year 2065 where as you would expect Earth is struggling to maintain itself and human life with new ways of life both on and off planet starting to emerge to plug the holes mankind has created for itself, Foe has an intriguing backdrop and a potentially potent central narrative centred around the marriage of Ronan's Hen and Mescal's Junior and the issues they begin to deal with when Aaron Pierre's mysterious Terrance arrives on their doorstep on fateful evening but the whole film is one that is left as nothing more than the what might have been.
Without entering into spoiler territory, with the films most interesting moments and delivery occurring in its later stages where much of the arduous early moments are better contextualised with the knowledge we get given in the films latter stages, no amount of solid work from Ronan or Mescal can mask the fact much of Foe's scripting and delivering needed far more refinement with many likely to mentally switch off well before Davis's film finally starts to explain itself in more detail.
While the films final stage explanations showcases just what type of film Foe wanted to be it's also not enough to make up for the fact there's far too much in Davis's offering that isn't up to standard, far too much exposition that adds little to the endgame and not enough emotional connection to two characters played by more than capable performers, making Foe a film that keeps you mostly at arms length rather than drawing you in and gripping you tight into its broader themes and explorations of the human conditions.
What Foe is delving into the questions it raises around certain well-covered sci-fi topics isn't exactly treading out new ground but they're weighty themes and subjects that should've provided us with a far more noteworthy film when you consider who is involved in bringing it too life, leaving Foe as it stands as a barely passable attempt to gift us with a moving and contemplative experience that squanders its cast and concept on a film you're going to forgot without much of a second-thought.
Final Say -
There's snippets in Foe of the film it might have been and Mescal and Ronan are both as ever entirely watchable but they much like us the audience are letdown by a film that fails to grasp what it is leaving things far to late for an attempt to salvage much of the averageness that has transpired for much of its runtime.
2 1/2 basement pianos out of 5.
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)