In only his second feature film, co-writer/director Christos Nikou is clearly headed deeper & deeper toward shallow waters on this futuristic fable, amusingly clad in 1970s apparel, technology & design, on the nature of Tru-Love: Now Scientifically Testable! Or is for those willing to have a nail yanked out and micowaved (or some such gobbledygook science) alongside their partner’s plucked appendage topper. (No doubt, they need the root end for the procedure. But why use the premium index finger instead of the useless toe pinky?) Though already a proven match with partner/fingernail skeptic Jeremy Allen White, Jessie Buckley senses something is missing in her relationship and secretly takes a job at Luke Wilson’s Love Testing Institute. Guiding couples thru various bonding exercises before ripping a nail out for compatibility testing, Buckley finds her antenna rising to senior work associate Riz Ahmed. And between all the mutual sexual tension, it’s but one surreptitious fingernail test before she conclusively confirms a level of attraction. But isn’t her partner a perfect match? Is it possible to love two people at once? Is the test flawed? And should results always dictate behavior?* Played in hushed/halting tones as if thru a glass darkly, everyone hoping for spontaneity, but sounding more like they can’t remember the next line. And who can blame them with barely enough material to fill a SNL comedy sketch. (The ones that go on after WeekEnd UpDate.) Trying for droll, Nikou misses badly, pivoting in hopes of earnest depth & real feeling, only managing fingernails on a chalkboard.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner covered this idea with impressive brevity intro’ing ‘On A Clear Day‘ with ‘And who would not be stunned to see you prove; There's more to us than surgeons can remove?’ The film’s hard to take, but the soundtrack does have Barbra Streisand at her absolute vocal peak.
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