'Fingernails' doesn't bite off enough
Apple+
Anyone perpetually fascinated by emotion, compatibility, and every possible collision of the two can’t help but feel intrigued by any examination of love that turns art into science. But not everything can be as daring, funny, and icily perceptive as “The Lobster” or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” evidenced most recently by “Fingernails,” in which a trip to the Love Institute nullifies itself virtually before arrival.
Telling her confirmed love match Ryan (Jeremy Allen White of “The Bear”) that she’s landed a new job at a school, Anna (Jessie Buckley) actually signs on to help evaluate couples at the aforementioned lab of romantic precision, where founder Duncan (Luke Wilson) has developed an exact method of confirming that two people are in love. That sounds so sweet and definitive, doesn’t it? Once you know that the method involves tearing off a fingernail from each person and sticking them in what looks like a 40-year-old microwave, the notion seems a bit less rosy. Not to mention that Anna and Ryan’s positive test result hasn’t stopped her from feeling bummed about his lack of effort toward their relationship, or from developing fondness for her colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed).
Director/co-writer Christos Nikou (a second assistant director on “Lobster” filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ fantastic “Dogtooth”) wants to explore the fluidity of feelings and the feebleness of marking anything in flux as finite, but these points never come through as anything other than obvious or self-evident even in the context of Duncan’s supposed breakthrough. Unlike the moment in “The Lobster” when a character says they couldn’t possibly love their partner more and then out of 15 still only gives their love a 14, “Fingernails” struggles to generate insight rather than simple points about dynamics either sparky or stale. A long way from the overwhelming temptation of something like “Take This Waltz,” “Fingernails” hinges on an identifiable affection that never really comes into big conflict with the existing relationship it threatens to undo.
That’s not to take anything away from the game cast, who are pretty much highly watchable in anything. The ideas involved here can’t help but keep your attention, if only in hopes of finding a new idea about love. But Nikou doesn’t learn any hard truths about the difference between people’s idea of love and the real presence of it. Working with a somewhat dry evaluation system of 0%, 50% or 100%, the film lands squarely, almost undeniably in the middle.
C
NEW: WANT TO SETTLE A MOVIE DEBATE, TALK ABOUT '90S FAVORITES, OR EVEN HAVE YOUR SHORT HOME MOVIE REVIEWED? BOOK A VIDEO FROM MATT VIA CAMEO
ORDER “TALK ‘90S WITH ME: 23 UNPREDICTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH STARS OF AN UNFORGETTABLE DECADE”
Matt’s new book arrived Sept. 27, 2022, and Richard Roeper raves: “Matt Pais deserves four stars for reintroducing us to many of the greatly talented but often unsung heroes of 1990s film. This is a terrific read.”
ARE YOU A “SAVED BY THE BELL” FAN?
Order “Zack Morris Lied 329 Times! Reassessing every ridiculous episode of ‘Saved by the Bell’ … with stats” (featuring interviews with 22 cast members, plus the co-founder of Saved by the Max and the creator of “Zack Morris is Trash”)
GET 100 STORIES FOR JUST $4.99