In the future, life on Earth is difficult.
Rain doesn’t fall in 2065. The merciless sun beats down. Water comes at a premium. And what once were lush green fields and thick forests are now barren stretches of inhospitable dirt peppered with dead snags and bone-bare stumps.
Such is the case with the land around Junior and Henrietta’s place. The generations before them lived in the same house and farmed the same fields. But those days, and all of the farms, are gone. These days, the old, peeling-paint house is just a hideaway that keeps out the grit when swirling dust storms kick up.
Hen and Junior survive—he works at a local poultry processing plant, she a local diner—but just barely. Their sweaty lives are strained.
Then one night a car pulls up outside. A man comes to their door.
He says his name is Terrance. He says he has an opportunity. He says he’s there on behalf of a company called Outer More.
With the land and the sea transforming as they are, Terrance explains, some important entities have taken the initiative to, well, create another place to live up in space. It’s a vast base that, eventually, will be humanity’s migration spot. A better place. A better life.
Outer More promises to make that happen.
Junior balks at the idea that he and Hen would ever go there, however. If that’s what Terrance is suggesting, he can drive back to wherever he came from. Junior isn’t keen on leaving his family home, and he’s pretty sure that Hen would hate the idea of flying off to some platform in space.
In fact, though, Hen might not be so against leaving this dust bowl of a place. And as Junior and Terrance talk, you can see that truth flit across her face. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because Terrance declares that Hen isn’t one of those chosen by the national lottery: only Junior. Besides, he’ll only be gone for a year, two at tops.
Junior does more than balk at that point. There’s no way in the world that he’d ever fly off and leave Hen alone here for a year or two! He assures Terrance that he can take his offer and shove it.
Again, though, Terrance calmly smiles, as he dabs the sweat from his brow and neck. This opportunity isn’t just an offer. “Have you ever heard the word conscription?” he asks.
“The government wouldn’t allow that,” Junior pants as he slumps back in his chair.
“We are the government,” Terrance declares. But not to worry, Junior’s little Hen won’t be alone, Terrance goes on. Oh, no. She won’t be alone or in danger. Outer More has something very special in mind that will keep Hen company. Very special. Why … it’ll almost be like Junior never left.
“You wait. You’ll see,” Terrance says with a reassuring smile.
In the course of this movie, we see the difference in a husband and wife’s relationship when the partners are open and communicative and when they are not. The film recognizes that when we don’t take the time to communicate our feelings well, we end up with crumbling relationships. But when a couple is close and truthful, they have a better chance, the movie states, of enduring almost anything.
Foe also raises questions about infidelity. It looks at character choices made and challenges viewers to think about their own choices, their own hopes and dreams. (It should be noted, however, that these concepts are not examined from a biblical perspective.)
None.
Seemingly because of the oppressive heat, Hen wears loose tank tops, shirts and open front dresses without a bra. And Junior walks around shirtless or with his shirt open as well.
Hen and Junior kiss and make love (while the camera looks on at times) on a number of occasions. One scene shows them sitting naked next to each other (seen from the rear) as he reaches over to fondle her breast. In several instances they are fully naked with strategic coverings of sheets or a partner’s body parts. But Hen’s breasts are fully exposed several times.
Both Hen and Junior are shown in the shower at different times. In her case we see her naked upper torso and legs. In Junior’s case we see him squatting down in the shower with his forehead to his knees.
Junior is fully naked and seen from the rear several times. (He’s running without pants in a field once.) In one of those cases, he is laying on the floor while his clothes are removed, and a gelatin compound is applied to his body by several technicians.
We hear that government officials are burning some of the old buildings in the area. And Hen and Junior spot a barn burning and a group of horses running from the flames. Junior runs toward the blaze and almost goes into the building before being violently tackled to the ground by a man.
When we see Junior next, his arm is in a sling, and we’re told that the tendons in his shoulder were operated on. He pulls off the bandages later to expose light scar tissue.
Someone pins Junior down and puts his hand over Junior’s mouth as if to smother him. Junior runs after strange men, shooting at them with a shotgun. He’s then knocked down, his face is bloodied, and an object is implanted in the back of his neck. A needle is stuck in between two of his knuckles. We see Junior, bloodied and chained to the floor by his wrist.
Junior also has something of an emotional breakdown at one point and slams his fists into a wall until his knuckles are badly bleeding. (A man watches this with an almost pleased expression on his face.) After washing away the blood, Junior pours the bloody water on a tree outside.
Hen smashes a wine glass and angrily slaps someone’s face. She also smashes a piano keyboard with a shovel. She struggles and screams as two men forcefully drag her away from a violent scene. The camera watches closely as someone smashes a large beetle with a bottle.
There are more than 40 f-words and some eight s-words in the dialogue. And God’s and Jesus’ names are misused a total of five times.
This film is set in a dusty, sweaty house and its local environs. The characters all regularly drink cold bottles of beer; and in some cases, glasses of wine. Several people sip glasses of champagne after a successful experiment.
Terrance smokes a cigarette on several occasions and what appears to be a joint in one case. After an injury, Junior takes what seems to be prescription medication. Once, he downs the pills with a beer.
Junior mentions the revulsion he feels he has when he sees people chewing with their mouths open, as well as hawking up phlegm and spitting it on the ground. We see several people eating with their mouths open.
Foe is a play-like sci-fi flick (with Sam Shepard-esque overtones) that sweats and despairs its way through a never-what-it-seems-to-be dystopian tale. Even its title is phonetically polysemous. It’s all based on and bolstered by the skills of the three main actors. (Saoirse Ronan being a particular standout.)
And by the time we get to its closing, script-flipped moments, Foe raises interesting questions about the choices we make, the things we don’t say and the resulting sallow lives we often live.
That may be the sort of thought-provoking stuff that you could chew over with a friend and a cup of coffee. But be forewarned, the journey to that coffeeshop conversation can be a grind.
Aesthetically, the early circling-dialogue moments of this film feel almost like an absurdist slog that’s peppered with unnecessarily nasty language and unexpectedly explicit sexuality. Those latter inclusions are strong enough, in fact, that you may want to skip the movie altogether.
You know, go straight to the conversation over coffee. There’s always a piece of pastry to chew on.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
