The year is 2065. Fresh water and habitable land are scarce, the cities overcrowded, the rural places abandoned. A young couple, Hen and Junior, continue their life on a desolate farm. As the film opens, Hen stands in the shower, collecting water from the bathtub for reuse. She is sobbing uncontrollably. A man knocks at the front door.
The man introduces himself as Terrance. He says he represents OuterMore, a corporation organizing an off-world colony. There was a lottery, he says. Junior made the shortlist. Training takes two years. Stunned, Junior asks what will happen if he refuses. Terrance sighs. He speaks of the days. The wars. Conscription. But that, he smiles, is just a warning. Then he catches himself. This is good. Junior will be a hero.
When Terrance leaves, Hen goes straight to bed. She asks Junior to sleep in the guest room. Taken aback, Junior asks: did Hen know Terrance was coming? And what of the way Terrance looked at Hen? Met with silence, Junior leaves the bedroom.
For a time, Hen and Junior live almost separate lives. Then, one morning, Hen approaches Junior's bed. She stares at his sleeping body. She takes his hand and places it against her. They make love. Afterward, Junior says he has always been happy and has never doubted their marriage. For a time, things are all right. Hen cries now and then. One day, she finds herself standing in the field by the tree trying to push her face into a smile. But mostly things are alright.
Terrance returns. He says Junior is scheduled to leave in two weeks. Hen and Junior attempt to protest, but Terrance is firm. He says he must stay in the house to observe Junior. Hen and Junior's protests become increasingly feeble and then, eventually, they become silent.
A montage shows Terrance living in the house, interviewing Junior, administering unusual tests. One night, Terrance and Hen drink and carouse while Junior looks on helplessly. Another night, Junior notices an unusual bug. It is not moving. Junior points this out to Hen. She says nothing. They see a fire in the distance. Hen gazes, spellbound. Junior begins running toward the fire. Startled, Hen chases him. Junior keeps running and just as he appears to run into the fire two shadowy figures tackle him.
Junior awakes in bandages. Hen and Terrance are standing over him. Junior was injured, they say. The fire was started by men burning an old barn. Terrance intensifies his monitoring, explaining that Junior's replacement will need to know what Junior knows. Wandering through the house, Junior finds a recording of Terrance interviewing Hen. In the recording, Hen frets over how she has lost parts of who she is and is scared she won't ever get them back. Terrance's voice is heard assuring her that the replacement will be all but identical.
Now Junior is declining, paranoid, unsure of himself. Junior sees shadowy figures on the perimeter of the property and chases them away with a shotgun. Terrance puts metal wristbands on Junior. He says they are for monitoring Junior's hydration.
The next morning, Hen sits waiting in the kitchen. She is wearing a nice dress. Outside, a vehicle approaches. Junior steps into the kitchen and embraces Hen, saying how he has missed her. After a moment, they walk into the next room where Terrance and a team from OuterMore are working. Junior stares in fascination at a body shackled to the floor. It is identical to his. Terrance talks, marveling at OuterMore's success. He says they never expected Hen and the replacement to fall in love. He says people will write about it for years. Members of the OuterMore team approach the shackled figure with a syringe.
Outside, while the team from OuterMore tends to the dead body, Hen lays in the dirt weeping.
Back together, Hen and the real Junior try to rekindle their relationship. But they are different now, and it is no good. One morning, Junior wakes to find that Hen has left. For a time, Junior goes on with his life. Terrance is seen visiting the house. After some time, Hen appears to return. Now, Hen sits still and upright and does not cry. Junior is happier, and it seems Hen is happier too, and they make love in the evening and drink beer on the porch. One morning, Hen notices an unusual bug. It is not moving. Hen points this out. Junior says nothing.
In the city on the other side of the valley, the real Hen gazes out the window of a plane as the crew makes preparations for take-off.
Amazon Studios entered negotiations for the distribution rights in July 2021.[5] On August 15, 2023, along with first look images of the film, it was revealed that it would be released by Amazon Studios on October 6, 2023, in the United States, before the distributor rebranded to Amazon MGM Studios following their 2022 acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[6][7]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 113 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10.The website's consensus reads: "Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan give it all they've got, but they're ultimately undone by Foe's clunky sci-fi trappings and ponderous attempts to generate psychological thrills."[13]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[14]
Luke Goodsell wrote for ABC Arts after its release in Australia: "Oscar nominees Ronan and Mescal are both charismatic, gripping performers, and they give Hen and Junior a rich sense of lived-in love and loathing. But despite the stars' best, hot-and-bothered exertion, Davis and Reid's screenplay eventually hangs them out to dry".[15]
Related Research Articles
Atonement is a 2007 romantic war drama film directed by Joe Wright and starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. The film chronicles a crime and its consequences over six decades, beginning in the 1930s. It was produced for StudioCanal and filmed in England. Distributed in most of the world by Universal Studios, it was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2007 and in North America exactly three months later on 7 December 2007.
"If Tomorrow Never Comes" is a song by American country music artist Garth Brooks. Written by Brooks and Kent Blazy, it was released in August 1989 as the second single from his self-titled debut album. The track was his first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and Brooks refers to it as his signature song. "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was named Favorite Country Single in the American Music Awards of 1991.
Saoirse Una Ronan is an American-born Irish actress. Primarily known for her work in period dramas since adolescence, she has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards and five British Academy Film Awards.
Hanna is a 2011 action thriller film directed by Joe Wright. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as the titular character, a girl raised in the wilderness of northern Finland by her father, an ex-CIA operative, who trains her as an assassin. Cate Blanchett portrays a senior CIA agent who tries to track down and eliminate the girl and her father. The soundtrack was written by The Chemical Brothers.
See-Saw Films is a British-Australian film and television production company founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, with offices in London and Sydney. Their productions include The King's Speech, Top Of The Lake, Lion, The Power of the Dog, Slow Horses and the British teen series Heartstopper.
The Host is a 2013 American romantic science fiction thriller film written for the screen and directed by Andrew Niccol based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Jake Abel, Max Irons, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger, and William Hurt. It tells the story of a young woman, Melanie, who is captured after the human race has been taken over by parasitic aliens called "Souls". After Melanie is infused with a "Soul" called "Wanderer", Melanie and the alien "Soul" vie for control of her body.
Jack Andrew Lowden is a Scottish actor. Following a four-year stage career, his first major international onscreen success was in the 2016 BBC miniseries War & Peace, which led to starring roles in feature films. He has received several awards including two BAFTA Scotland Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.
How I Live Now is a 2013 romantic speculative drama film based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Meg Rosoff. It was directed by Kevin Macdonald, written by Tony Grisoni, Jeremy Brock and Penelope Skinner while starring Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Tom Holland, Harley Bird, Anna Chancellor and Corey Johnson. The film centres around American teenager, Daisy and her British cousins, Eddie (MacKay), Isaac (Holland) and Piper (Bird), as they try to reunite during an apocalyptic nuclear war.
Brooklyn is a 2015 romantic period drama film directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Hornby, based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Colm Tóibín. A co-production between the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, it stars Saoirse Ronan in the lead role, with Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters in supporting roles. The plot follows Eilis Lacey, a young Irishwoman who immigrates to Brooklyn in the early 1950s to find employment. After building a life there, she is drawn back to her home town of Enniscorthy and has to choose where she wants to forge her future. Principal photography began in April 2014 with three weeks of filming in Ireland, which were followed by four weeks in Montreal, Quebec; only two days of filming took place in Brooklyn, one of which was spent at the beach in Coney Island.
Garth Davis is an Australian television, advertising and film director, best known for directing the film Lion (2016), and the film Mary Magdalene, written by Helen Edmundson. He earlier directed episodes of the series Top of the Lake (2013).
Iain Reid is a Canadian writer. Winner of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award in 2015, Reid is the author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2016) and Foe (2018).
On Chesil Beach is a 2017 British drama film directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Ian McEwan, who adapted his own 2007 Booker Prize-nominated novella of the same name. It stars Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle and tells the story of virgins, Florence and Edward, and their first disastrous attempt at having sex on their wedding night. The initial experience and their differing responses to the failure have lifelong consequences for both.
Lady Bird is a 2017 American coming-of-age comedy drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig in her solo directorial debut, starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Lois Smith. Set in Sacramento, California from fall 2002 to fall 2003, it focuses on a high school senior who shares a turbulent relationship with her mother.
Mary Queen of Scots is a 2018 historical drama film directed by Josie Rourke and with a screenplay by Beau Willimon based on John Guy's 2004 biography Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Margot Robbie as her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, David Tennant, and Guy Pearce also star in supporting roles.
Little Women is a 2019 American coming-of-age period drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig. It is the seventh film adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. It chronicles the lives of the March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—in Concord, Massachusetts, during the 19th century. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Louis Garrel, and Chris Cooper.
Ammonite is a 2020 romantic drama film written and directed by Francis Lee. Loosely inspired by the life of British palaeontologist Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet, the film centres on a speculative romantic relationship between Anning and geologist Charlotte Murchison, played by Saoirse Ronan. Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secăreanu and Fiona Shaw also star.
Foe is the second novel by Canadian writer Iain Reid. It was released in August 2018 in the United States by Simon & Schuster. The book has been described as a psychological thriller and horror fiction against a science fiction backdrop. Reid referred to it as a "philosophical suspense story". Foe is set in the near future and is about a married couple living on a remote farm whose lives are thrown in turmoil when a stranger arrives.
Paul Colm Michael Mescal is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Aaron Stone Pierre is an English actor.
Blitz is an upcoming historical drama written and directed by Steve McQueen and starring Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan in his film debut, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, Stephen Graham and Paul Weller.
References
↑ "Foe (15)". BBFC. September 12, 2023. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
