Worth: $16.00
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Cast:
Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Annie Murphy, Luke Wilson
Intro:
… sweet though predictable …
Love hurts, or at least it does in Christos Nikou’s film Fingernails. In the Greek director’s English-language debut, couples can pay to undergo a test to determine their compatibility. Both members of the couple must have a single fingernail pulled out, which is then scanned by a machine that translates their affection for one another into a numerical percentage. Frustratingly, the mechanics of the machine are largely undiscussed in the film, leaving viewers to wonder just how it measures love and why some of the characters (though not all) believe the results are infallible. Yet, in the world of the film, bad results cause divorces and good ones keep couples together, even when there doesn’t seem to be a lot of actual love between them. Unsurprisingly, as viewers will discover, the machine doesn’t always get it right.
Given its deadpan performances and absurd premise, it’s no surprise that Fingernails distinctly recalls Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster; the directors are long-time collaborators.
Nikou’s movie follows a young schoolteacher named Anna, portrayed by Jessie Buckley, as she begins a new job at the Love Institute (where these tests are conducted). Though she and her long-term partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) received a 100%-in-love test result three years ago, Anna quickly finds herself falling for new colleague, Amir (Riz Ahmed).
Nikou’s film is interested in the way romance has become sterilised by technology in the modern age, and it does an excellent job of exploring how, underneath all the formulas and machinery, love continues to dwell in the body. (Though the film never explicitly mentions dating apps, Nikou has cited his disdain for them as inspiration). Throughout Nikou’s film, couples partake in classes to help bring them closer together in preparation for the test. The courses require couples to jump from planes, hold their breath underwater and endure electric shock, all in a vain effort to simulate the physical pangs and excitements of love within the beige confines of the Institute’s classrooms. Like The Lobster, Fingernails shines comedically when it depicts couples awkwardly attempting to force such affection. It is only when Anna meets Amir that the film captures how love is really felt, longingly watching him twist and shimmy on the dancefloor at the office party, and later, gently tracing the scar on his stomach under the orangey glow of his bedside lamp. Throughout, Buckley and Ahmed’s performances are thoughtfully subtle, full of achingly tender glances.
Fingernails is sweet though predictable, as instinct and emotion eventually triumph over machine. Yet, because the film itself knowingly abounds in cliches (the student-couples watch Hugh Grant romcoms and sing 1980s love ballads in French), its sentimentality, while corny, always feels fitting. So, where The Lobster ultimately portrays love as a full-body experience, David (Colin Farrell) gouging out his own eye to be with Rachel Weisz’s character, Nikou’s film is more pared back. He proposes love should be felt viscerally as well, though one need only sacrifice a fingernail or two.
