LITTLE JOE

Directed by Jessica Hauser Starring: Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox

Look what I have for you. What do think, we’ll call him Little Joe? You have to take good care of it. Keep it warm. Talk to it. It needs attention.

- Alice

Alice, a single mother, is a dedicated senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. She has engineered a very special crimson flower, remarkable not only for its beauty but also for its therapeutic value: if kept at the ideal temperature, fed properly and spoken to regularly, this plant makes its owner happy.

Against company policy, Alice takes one home as a gift for her teenage son, Joe. They christen it ‘Little Joe’ but as it grows so too does Alice’s suspicion that her creations may not be as harmless as their nickname suggests.

At first the attraction of this movie is its uniqueness as it steps from one genre to another with sci-fi its calling card. It is unsettling for the storyline jumps all over the place and with a haunting soundtrack aiming to add to the suspense. But soon one is thinking of films like The Day of the Triffids, and it is not in that class.

The idea that the plant will make you happy does not materialise, only false promises that like the film result in disappointment. Little Joe does not engage the emotions and consequently you lose interest in the characters and despite good acting, it is not enough to save the film.

Director, Jessica Hauser, has made a film that has an aspiring storyline that fails to deliver, but what does she feel about Little Joe? Let us eavesdrop on Jessica at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and the press conference for the film.

“The film is a sort of genre film, but it is also not at all! I think the idea was to have a happy end and not like in some horror films, for example Body Snatchers (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), in the end the whole world is infected and it’s very bad, dark and depressing. And I think what I wanted to do is a sort of, “let’s live with the zombies, we’ll be fine!”

“I never really made very Austrian films –I always try to make films that have an international audience because the films I’m doing are naturalist films –they’re not even realism films –they’re very

stylish, styled. I’m interested in doing fairy tales, and I think they should hold good for which country ever; and it’s also not really a film that’s in the future, it could also be in the past. Those elements that are important to me –I prefer to do something that has a more existential point of view”.

AWARDS:

PRIX D’INTERPRETATION FEMININE: EMILY BEECHAM (CANNES INTERNATIONAL, 2019 FILM FESTIVAL)

GRAND PRIX DU FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE SCIENCE FICTION UTOPIALES (POITIERS, 2019)

MENTION SPECIALE DU JURY AU FESTIVAL EUROPEAN DU FILM FANTASTIQUE (STRASBOURG, 2019).

Ultimately, there are good intentions both for the flower and the characters in the story.

An inventive script.

Fluid and crisp cinematography by Martin Gschlacht

Excellent Costume and Production Design by Tanya Hausner and Katharina Woppermann.

Soundtrack from the Watermill Album by Japanese composer Teiji Ito.

The film screened at last year’s London Film Festival in the DARE SECTION.

In conclusion, the film does have merits, but unfortunately not enough to warrant a second viewing.

UK RELEASE: 21 ST

FEBRUARY 2020

AT MOST ARTHOUSE CINEMAS

Chris (Ben Whishaw) in Little Joe

Alice (Emily Beecham) & Chris (Ben Whishaw) in Little Joe