FINGERNAILS (B+) - Christos Nikou follows up the elegant "Apples" with this droll pseudo-sci-fi examination of the complicated ways in which we fall in love -- or want to be assured that we have fallen in love with the right partner.
Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed are wonderfully melancholy as co-workers at a company that has cornered the market on the new science that can definitively determine whether two people are in love. The Love Institute (run by an eccentric owner played by a morose Luke Wilson) trains couples in boosting their intimacy in order to maximize their odds of scoring 100 percent on the love-match test. (Chuck Woolery is not involved this time.) If the couple score a 50 percent, that means only one person is in love with the other. If it's a zero, neither is in love. Those are the only three options. The test involves pulling off a fingernail of each person (commitment!) and putting the stubs into a machine that looks like a microwave oven, with results appearing within minutes.
Buckley's Anna is in a 100 percent relationship with Ryan (the ubiquitous Jeremy Allen White), but their coupling has grown humdrum, and Anna is starting to question the science and her own heart. She tries to nudge Ryan with some of the exercises she has learned during her training, but he is complacent, contentedly set for life. Anna soon grows close with Amir (Ahmed), her hangdog workmate who is apparently faking a relationship with Natasha (Annie Murphy is a fun cameo) while devoting his energies to the couples who depend on him to get them in the right space to hopefully ace the test.
It's no secret that Anna and Amir begin to fall for each other. They both are pretty mopey about it. But their longing is palpable, and Buckley and Ahmed throw themselves into the deep end of the emotional pond. Buckley cycles through a range of feelings, and Ahmed has gravitas as a quietly broken man who uses humor as a crutch. Nikou has created a quirky atmosphere, and he peppers the proceedings with minor-key absurdities -- humorous interludes and one-offs that keep the mawkishness at bay.
The setting also keeps the viewer off-balance. It is set not in the future so much as it is in a parallel time. The phones are landlines. The only computer displayed prominently is the testing device, which has a Pong-era monitor that crudely displays the results of each test. One intimacy exercise has couples singing karaoke together, though all the songs are in French (such as "La Mer," the fore-runner to "Beyond the Sea"). Others have a connection to actual science, like smell tests and bonding exercises. Many of the couples are setting themselves up for heartbreak if they don't eventually score 100 percent.
In the end, this is an occasionally profound treatise on yearning and the complications of human connections. Anna, at one point, proclaims that "sometimes it's more lonely to be in love than to be alone." She's a perfect match with the lump sitting on the couch each night. Does she dare risk that by following her instincts and defying modern technology?
PASSAGES (B) - Tomas is a narcissistic movie director who is difficult to be around, and that's a challenge not only for the other characters in this gloomy film but also for the viewers. Ira Sachs ("Love Is Strange") hangs out in Paris for this dour love triangle, a slog through Tomas' devastation of other lives.
German Tomas (Franz Rogowski from "Transit") cheats on his British husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw), with a French woman, Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos), but Tomas is so fickle and arrogant that he does little more than toy with each of them, as he fantasizes about somehow starting a family that could include all three of them. Martin moves on quickly with a hunky writer, but Agathe is slow to understand just how horrible Tomas is, and before you know it, she is pregnant.
At times this is compelling, especially the showdowns between various permutations of these three characters (plus another scene with Tomas and Agathe's parents, who, understandably, cannot fathom what their daughter sees in this jerk). Rogowski is more annoying than convincing as Tomas. Exarchopoulos doesn't get much to work with, and it's hard to understand her character's motivations. Whishaw is the savior here as a man emotionally torn between the man he loves and the need to purge the ogre from his life. There are several sex scenes among the trio, and they are all fairly joyless.
Sachs penned the script with regular partner Mauricio Zacharias and veteran Arlette Langmann ("Loulou"). They have a great idea, and the cast is game, but Sachs just doesn't pull off a believable story that involves three-dimensional characters. It's a missed opportunity.
BONUS TRACK
Music is key in "Fingernails." The central song is "Only You" by Yaz, heard in French and then, over the credits, covered by the Flying Pickets, who had a British number one with their barbershop version:
Back to Vince Clark and Alison Moyet, and Yaz's techno gem "Don't Go," also in the movie:
And let's seize on the opportunity to spin "Beyond the Sea," the Bobby Darin classic:
From a party scene in "Passages," this chippy surf tune "Ce Soir" by Kumisolo:
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