Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director/co-writer: Lorcan Finnegan, Umbrella Entertainment.
Cast: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Danielle Ryan, Molly McCann.
Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg in Vivarium.
Anything but a comedy of dehumanization, Vivarium is a grim minimalist sci-fi allegory about stripping a people of positive human qualities. Watching this film leaves you experiencing a sense of hopelessness, just as numb as the characters must feel.
A young couple – schoolteacher Gemma (Poots, 28 Weeks Later) and handyman Tom (Eisenberg, The Social Network) – is looking for their dream home. They visit a strange real estate agent (Jonathan Aris), who takes them to Yonder, a mysterious suburban neighborhood of identical houses. The encounter turns their lives into a waking suburban nightmare. They can’t leave quick enough, but are unsuccessful in their attempts.
When they try to exit the labyrinth-like housing development, each road leads them back to where they started. It’s not long before they realise their search for a dream home has landed them in a terrifying nightmare.
Child rearing is an arduous task for Tom and Gemma. Time passes differently in Yonder, especially for their unnamed child (Senan Jennings, and later Eanna Hardwicke).
Latin, literally for “place of life”, vivarium is an enclosure, container or structure adapted or prepared for observation or study. Irish director Finnegan not only recreates a sense of the couple’s despair and desolation, but also raises thoughts about the suffocating nature of marriage and parenting.
Spanish cinematographer MacGregor (18 seconds, Uyuni, Similo) skillfully captures the weird housing development, with its turning, twisty streets, in a recurrent ‘magic hour’ sunset that casts an eerie glow around the characters.
Even though the visuals are impressive with an interesting arrangement, the sound design is predictive, the creepy horror transfixes at it moves at a sluggardly pace. This can be somewhat unnerving.
A couple is trapped in a housing project. Yonder is where you’ll find you’re home right now. They are quality family homes. Forever.
There’s a sense of anticipation, an urgency, a curiosity to learn the truth that will propel you to the end.
Vivarium is currently screening On Demand and will be on Foxtel On Demand from 6 May.
