Fingernails movie review: Emotionless Apple film wastes trio of young stars led by Jessie Buckley

While the invention of this technology has drastically reduced divorce rates in this alternate reality, it hasn’t exactly increased happiness. Those who fail the test inevitably end up separating, and those that pass it with flying colours slip into a sort of complacency. And that’s the state Anna finds herself in when this aggressively odd movie opens. It’s like a Black Mirror episode directed by someone who really, really admires the films of Yorgos Lanthimos.

Without telling Ryan, Anna takes up a job at the facility that conducts these tests, and is immediately told to shadow a bright young employee named Amir, played by Riz Ahmed. Over the course of the next few weeks, as they administer scientific methods to examine something as indescribable as love, they discover that they’re quietly developing feelings for each other.

It’s an admittedly intriguing premise, undone by some of the most low-energy moviemaking imaginable. Not once do you sense a genuine spark between Anna and Amir, despite how desperately the movie wants you to feel it. As they walk out of a screening of Notting Hill — couples are treated to rom-coms as a part of the test — Amir scoffs at the idea of romance peddled in movies. “Watching a love story feels safe, being in love doesn’t,” he tells Anna, with the tone of somebody who has often been disappointed in relationships. It’s probably also the exact moment that Anna realises she’s falling for him.

Almost as if she wants to one-up him in the memorable movie quotes department, she whispers some scenes later, “Sometimes, being in love is lonelier than being alone.” These bangers deserved a better movie, as did these performers, who are left to conjure passion out of thin air, stranded as they are in a sea of monotony by Nikou. Barring these two moments, Fingernails is never able to offer much insight into its admittedly lofty themes. Better minds have tried to understand the intricacies of love and failed, and even though it occasionally grazes against an interesting idea or two — getting a perfect score in the test, Fingernails says, doesn’t mean that you have to believe it — the film overstays its welcome by at least an hour.

Perhaps this could’ve actually been retrofitted into a Black Mirror episode, or, alternatively, been handed over to a director more skilled at evoking emotion. As it stands, Fingernails is like the appendage that it is named after — increasingly irritating to deal with, and ultimately destined to be discarded.

Fingernails
Director – Christos Nikou
Cast – Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson
Rating – 2/5