Movie Review: Fingernails
Believe it or not, but behind this tough and rugged exterior lives a big softy who is easily moved by unique and genuine stories about love. Dare I say, a romantic? Any way you slice it, I applaud any worthwhile examination of life’s strongest and most complicated emotion. This year, we’re given an insightful new perspective of “true love” in Christos Nikous’ upcoming Apple+ streamed release, Fingernails.
It’s been long agreed that signs of hard troubles such as heart disease can leave their first signs of detection in the fingernails. The budding Greek auteur, Christos Nikou, takes this interesting medical phenomenon and uses it as a catalyst for his thoughtful and sincere love story. Set in the not-so-distant future, a physical test can be administered to determine if two people are truly in love (i.e. soul mates, although the film never uses this phrase) by having each of them sacrifice a fingernail for the analysis.
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter and Women Talking) and Jeremy Allen White (Shameless and The Bear) star as Anna and Ryan, a couple who know that they’ve found true love thanks to this new technology. Yet, after a few years since receiving their positive test results, Anna still desires to try new things and to continue the exploration of their relationship while Ryan prefers to stick to the norm knowing that they’re scientifically compatible. These stark differences in their perspectives forces Anna to question the validity of this medical phenomenon.
While Fingernails tries to simplify life’s most complicated feeling by boiling it down to one small calculable approach, the beauty of the film lies in its examination of the complexities involved in being in a committed relationship. This juxtaposition is the driving force of this modestly budgeted indie. In fact, as Anna’s character secretly takes a job alongside Amir (Nightcrawler and Sound of Metal’s Riz Ahmed) at a Love-Testing Institute where she’s forced to work with couples desperate to strengthen their bonds before taking the test, she begins to forge her own thoughts and opinions regarding true love. She outwardly ponders whether love is something that simply is, or if it’s something that needs to be worked on and massaged every single day.
Christos Nikou’s Fingernails serves as a thought-provoking and original exploration of this powerful human emotion. Each performer plays their character “to a T”, perfectly guiding the audience through Nikou’s well-crafted vision of the story. Even a small, supporting role from Luke Wilson (Old School), who plays Duncan, the founder of the Love Institute where Anna becomes employed, proves invaluable. Through Duncan’s character, Nikou really hammers home the social implications of this profound, new test, as Duncan admits to immediately divorcing his wife of MANY years upon discovering their negative test result. This new world dynamic sets the stage for what’s to come in Fingernails. And while the film occasionally delivers a low-budget look and feel, the heartfelt sincerity of its characters and the complicated love story at its center are both guaranteed to satisfy any true romantic.
GRADE: 3.5/5
