Rated: M
Directed and Screenplay by: Jessica Hausner
Produced by: Bruno Wagner, Bertrand Faivre, Philippe Bober Martin Gschlacht, Jessica Hausner, Gerardine O’Flynn
Cinematography: Martin Gschlacht
Starring: Emily Beecham, Ben Wishaw, Kerry Fox, Kit Connor, David Wilmot, Phénix Brossard, Sebastian Hülk and Lindsay Duncan.
Plant breeder, Alice (Emily Beecham) has genetically engineered a plant that releases a scent to make its owner happy.
She names the mood lifting plant after her son: Little Joe.
Alice has a good relationship with Joe (Kit Connor); a typical teenager, ‘Yep, whatever.’
Until he breathes in the scent of the happy plant. Because once you breath in the scent of Little Joe, you become infected. You become, a different person.
That’s what Bella (Kerry Fox) says. A plant breeder for over twenty years.
But she’s crazy. She has to be crazy to think a plant can change someone.
The premise of the film, superficially, seems a stretch. But the way the story unfolds leads with the spacious feeling of a secret. I wasn’t sure where I was being led but there were a lot of red flags. Literally: the red font in the opening credits, the red diffuse light, the red hair, red car, red cherry, all leading back to the red flower of the plant named, Little Joe.
That feeling of a secret, of a quiet other world is enhanced by the soundtrack, the music written by Japanese composer, Teiji Ito. There’s this high-pitched whistle, like the plants are communicating amongst the sound of a flute floating, building with drums that flourish, marking steps in the story that are guided by science.
The strangeness of the idea works because the characters are scientists talking about science – the genetically engineered plants created using virus vectors that release oxytocin.
Bella makes the point that because the plant is sterile – has to be made sterile, because it’s genetically engineered and there’s a risk of the plant running wild in nature, and of course the commercial aspect – it’s natural for the plant to want to reproduce. So, imagine a plant where a virus vector mutates to not only cause happiness, but to work towards reproducing itself.
Oxytocin, is otherwise known as the mother hormone because it’s released into the blood stream in response to love and childbirth, to create a bond.
You look after the plant, you feed it, keep it warm, talk to it, and Little Joe rewards you with happiness.
‘Knock on wood.’
Says Alice during a therapy session.
‘What worries you?’ asks her psychotherapist (Lindsay Duncan).
Knock on wood.
Which of your children will you choose?
The film follows Alice as she navigates her desire to work versus the love she has for Joe, her feelings towards fellow scientist, Chris (Ben Wishaw) and her fear that the plant she’s created is in fact changing people.
Is it fear that distorts how she sees the world? Or is she finally able to see what she’s really afraid of?
What is it that she secretly wishes for?
The film scratches at those secret desires using those feelings as a vehicle to hide the agenda of the story. Like the agenda of a new entity that wants to reproduce but can’t, so uses the happy hormone to replicate, to be cared for.
It’s clever. But the tone of film isn’t about being clever; it’s just different. And interesting, with a subtle flavour of the disconcerting.