Fingernails, the sophomore directorial effort of Christos Nikou, screened at IFFBoston Fall Focus 2023. The movie brings a conventional rom-com story to a beautiful dystopian world, though sometimes plays the story too straight.
Love has been solved in the world of Fingernails, a new dystopian rom-com by Christos Nikou. The high concept metaphor of the movie is: couples can go to the Love Institute to test whether their love is reciprocal. There was a recent breakthrough that discovered love can be detected under the fingernails; the cost of the test is an excruciating fingernail removal process. The Test looms over all relationships: some couples try to deny its accuracy and remain in ignorant bliss, often unsuccessfully, others live and die based on its results.
The plot centers on Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), a couple who had passed the test when it was first developed but are questioning whether they should have their results renewed. Anna gets a job at the Love Institute, and starts to believe she has feelings for her co-worker Amir (Riz Ahmed). Within this dystopian framework, standard rom-com fare ensues: as Anna and Amir spend time working with couples to optimize their compatibility test results, they learn more about love and start to feel it between themselves.
In broad strokes, the movie satirizes modern-day dating app culture. The idea is that if we trust algorithms to pair us with potential partners, the natural conclusion of that idea is a machine that tells us whether we’re in love or not. However, while there are many interesting avenues for the movie to explore its world as a technological parable, the movie frequently falls back on its rom-com bones without taking full advantage of its implications.
It’s kept ambiguous whether the love test provides accurate measurements. Either answer opens a can of worms that the movie seems afraid to tackle: if the test is accurate, what does that say about finding happiness under determinism? And if not, why has society so blindly accepted its results? The central metaphor of having to remove a fingernail serves as a tame body horror to represent the pain that comes with love, but isn’t extreme enough to warrant its thematic purpose.
There are also no tangible punishments for choosing to disobey the test. Love isn’t an act of rebellion, as is common in these types of dystopian stories (1984 is a classic example). Instead, Anna and Amir kind of just choose not to listen to the machine, and nothing really comes of it. The movie presents a company that has commodified the notion of love, but seems to place just as much—if not more—blame on the people who buy into its promises.
However, the movie’s rom-com skeleton is very solid, and its dramatic beats are effective. Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed sell their hesitant romance with a lot of chemistry, and present genuinely compelling performances of two people making their own decisions despite what the world tells them. Beyond the Love Institute of it all, the primary conflict comes from Jessie choosing Amir despite her current test-certified relationship with Ryan, which is justified by Ryan’s detachment as a partner in contrast to Amir’s empathy and understanding.
Overwhelmingly, the movie’s most beautiful moments are those in which you forget about the scenario our characters are in, a reminder that these are two souls feigning for normalcy in a world that has done away with the idea. So even though the movie never interrogates its premise in-depth, there is admittedly something pleasant about existing in this twisted world without feeling the need to overexplore every facet. Just existing in Fingernails is enough: it helps that the set design and atmosphere perfectly scratches the pastel dystopia itch left by Her.
The premise of Fingernails lends itself to tragedy, but perhaps the more relevant takeaway is escapism. Like in all of the best romance movies, you’re left wondering how long they can last after the credits roll. But in the moment, sometimes the most worthwhile thing is to find something to love within the dystopias we find ourselves in.
