Little Joe (2019)

Review

105min

Genre:       Drama, Mystery, Sci-fi

Director:     Jessica Hausner

Cast:         Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox…and more

Writers:     Géraldine Bajard and Jessica Hausner

-Synopsis-

When a single mom scientist and plant breeder is looking to inject some happiness into her home, she brings one of her prototype therapeutic plants for her son, only to find that the new life she has created might have a mind of its own, as her home and work life is slowly transformed . . . with ominous consequences for everyone around her.

For several key decades in the history of early Hollywood and western cinema the spectre of the cold war loomed heavily in the mind, and the fear of communist infiltration inspired many a ‘body and mind’ takeover genre film, often of the alien variety.  Now inspired by themes and aesthetics of a counter-culture filmmaking generation, Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner leads an English language Anglo-German production with a mostly British cast, focusing her lens on the creep of corporatisation and a perpetually anxious generation to give us her subtle take on the classic body-snatching sub-genre—delivering a subdued sci-fi warning parable about identity, the illusive search for happiness and the perils of playing god in the antidepressant era.

Emily Beecham stars as genetic botanist ‘Alice Woodard’, a working single mom without much of a social life raising her son ‘Joe’ (Kit Connor) while working at a tech lab developing pioneering plants with serious therapeutic properties, alongside co-workers ‘Chris’ (Ben Whishaw) and ‘Bella’ (Kerry Fox) among others. But when she takes home a sample of her horticultural experiments to help boost her son’s mood, Alice soon finds that she may have underestimated her creation, as her lab’s valuable commodity soon begins to alter the workplace environment and quench a thirst for worry-free living—with the price being an inescapable even-keeled commune.

At a first glance for most cinephiles ‘Little Joe’ may conjure up memories from a very specific part of sci-fi and B movie history, in particular from the likes of seminal alien body-snatching flick ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and 60s British horror film ‘The Day of the Triffids’, perhaps even ‘Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy’ and episodes of ‘The Twilight Zone’, and it’s clear that Hausner and co-writer Géraldine Bajard have taken narrative and thematic inspiration from many a cult classic. But their uneasy concoction only ever flirts with horror, instead playing like a psychological drama with mild mystery and thriller tendencies, deliberate, slow and restrained with some head-scratching human behaviour . . . and not just from whom you might expect.

The film establishes its style credentials early by employing a hyper-realistic design aesthetic and rich colour palette reminiscent of late 60s early 70s Kubrick and Italian Giallo, giving the story a very subtle otherworldly quality and bolstering the beguiling qualities of the enigmatic plant at the centre of the story, while Hausner deliberately juxtaposes this against the backdrop of clean, emotionless sterile labs and austere corporate corridors—all vividly captured by cinematographer Martin Gschlacht. The uneasy mood of the film and its sense of uncertainty meanwhile is set by an unsettlingly idiosyncratic and borderline bizarre soundtrack, featuring several themes from the late Teiji Ito, blending Japanese and Celtic instrumentals which become progressively more tense and jarring to complement the narrative and its protagonist’s state of mind.

With the sci-fi/mystery element and indeed the core narrative being sparked by something as inanimate as a plant, strikingly crimson as it may be, the drama (restrained as it is) is left to an ensemble cast of largely indie British, Irish and Kiwi talent. And the likes of Ben Whishaw as Alice’s lab co-lead, Kerry Fox as her suspecting co-worker, and in particular Kit Connor as her young son and the plant’s namesake all deliver solid performances and subtly sinister personal transformations—all skilfully led by Emily Beecham herself as the conflicted moral heart of the piece . . . and seemingly the only non-lunatic running the asylum.

Clearly ‘Little Joe’ has something to say without feeling the need to shout it from the rooftops, and Hausner skilfully sets the canvas and establishes the mood for her indie meditation on the corporatisation of happiness, the lifelessness of conformity and the herd mentality—even flirting with the notion that it might be better to join the walking dead than fight them. All while maintaining a sense of unease and uncertainty which leaves both the audience and Alice questioning what you see and perceive.

It’s unfortunate and a bit ironic then that the film itself feels a tad lifeless and too subtle for its own good, almost as if the plant’s spores had made their way into the celluloid (or in this case digital film). Yes ‘Little Joe’ is weird and quirky to some extent, but not enough to give it a distinct personality or stand out in the kaleidoscope of global indie film, and the promise of real tension or peril never truly materialises, as the film struggles to keep you completely engrossed or totally invested the fate of its characters.

Yet even though it may have been better served by embracing its horror genre influences rather than suppressing or subverting them, ‘Little Joe’ still packs enough style, atmosphere and nuance into its neat little socially ponderous indie package to make it worth your consideration—making its tagline of “happiness is a business” stick but leaving us asking . . . isn’t everything these days?

The Bottom Line…

Jessica Hausner’s body-snatching parable and sci-fi warning tale for the antidepressant generation fizzles but never quite catches fire, promising more than it delivers but still managing to just about capture the imagination with a restrained but hypnotic and stylish minimalist indie psychological sci-fi drama, which might make you think twice next time you want to wake up and smell the roses.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

When a local town doctor begins to suspect foul play when the residents of his community begin to display subtle changes and curious behaviour, he’s soon plunged into a race against time to unravel a conspiracy which threatens to take over the town and and possibly the human race, in this seminal sci-fi body-snatching classic from Don Siegel.

Directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter and Larry Gates among others.

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