In ‘Foe,’ who’s doing the dying?

Director Garth Davis acutely examines marriage by asking the question: Would you be willing to save humanity if it meant risking even the troubled relationship with the one you love? It’s what Henrietta (Saoirse Ronan) and husband Junior (Paul Mescal) face while living on a farm, the world around them crumbling as humans turn to an off-planet homestead. When Junior is selected to leave, he is replaced at home by a biological replica that looks, acts and thinks like him. It’s an AI experiment that reinvigorates Hen’s life as the artificial version represents a time when Junior was more spontaneous and curious. “For me she is a character that seems to be very aware of how precious time is and just how precious we are,” Davis says. When the real Junior returns, his AI-counterpart is put to rest, vacuum-sealed in a bag like leftover meat, a moment that sees Hen flushed with grief. “The death scene is so powerful because he’s almost looking at a version of himself that he knows he’s denied and killed off himself,” Davis says. “It’s a moment everyone can relate to. How many times do you wake up and say you don’t feel like yourself? And you go, how did I end up here?”