Would you leave behind the person you love the most to travel the cosmos? Obviously that’s not an easy question. It’s one that gets even harder if your journey would force your spouse into years of solitude they might not survive. But what if there was a way to make sure they weren’t alone? That would to seem to make the choice at least a little easier, but that’s far from the case in the first trailer for FOE starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. Because the only thing worse than leaving your wife might be leaving her with a robot version of yourself.
Amazon Studios’ upcoming film, which also stars Aaron Pierre, might look like inspired by the recent episode of Black Mirror starring Aaron Paul. But it’s based on best-selling author Iain Reid’s 2018 novel. His story certainly wouldn’t be out of place on the Netflix series. Here’s the official synopsis for FOE to bring its trailer into clearer focus:
Hen & Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre, Foe’s mesmerizing imagery and persistent questions about the nature of humanity (and artificial humanity) bring the not-too-distant future to luminous life.
Directed by Garth Davis with a script from him and Reid, Amazon Studios’ also says the film is “a haunting exploration of marriage and identity set in an uncertain world.”
This is the latest big screen adaptation for Reid. Charlie Kaufman brought the author’s debut novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things to Netflix in 2020. Maybe Hen and Junior should keep that in mind. Watching movies is probably a much less problematic way of dealing with your spouse’s absence than living with a robot of them.
FOE comes to theaters in the U.S. on October 6, 2023. It arrives in Canada a week later on October 13.