Parents' Guide to Foe

Despite its big ideas about AI, climate change, and what the future holds for human existence, this sci-fi drama never manages to take off. Based on a book by Ian Reid -- Reid shares co-writing credits with director Garth Davis for the screenplay -- Foe is set in the year 2065. Years of drought have left lands barren to the point that the U.S. government is conscripting selected young men to head into space to build an alternative home for humans. One of the chosen is Mescal's Junior, whose marriage to Hen (Ronan), like the land that surrounds their isolated Midwest farm, is slowly dying in front of them. Standing in for Junior while he's gone will be an artificial intelligence replica, who after a series of tests and interviews will be indistinguishable from the real-life Junior. If this is sounding familiar, it's likely you've seen a Black Mirror episode that tackles similar ideas, only better. Mescal and Ronan both give it their all, but the story is ponderous and leaves too many questions unanswered. Perhaps that's Davis respecting the audience's intelligence, allowing them to come up with their own answers and interpretations. But then the final five minutes ruins this theory, hammering home a final twist that had already been revealed.