Fingernails is an intriguing, yet overly long near future look at how couples interact after they’re able to test their relationship compatibility down to the percentage. The latest release from Apple Original Films streaming on Apple TV+ feels very much in line with the content they’re producing, as much of it is terrific Sci-Fi that genuinely prompts great questions. I’m not sure that Fingernails gets around to answering some of those great questions it brings up, but it was still more enjoyable than not.
A few years after the everything changed with the introduction of a “love test”, couples all over the world have been divorcing and getting together at historic rates. All that’s required to determine two people’s compatibility is to remove a fingernail each and test them together in the lab. Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) have been a positive match now for years, but after she begins working at the love institute, she meets Amir (Riz Ahmed) and wonders just how strong her connection is and if that may change over time.
Bridging the gap between science fiction and reality, Fingernails almost feels partially inspired by the massive amounts of divorces and separations the world saw during the shutdown of Covid-19. In this world, people take the percentages as fact, and you see how different couples respond to their results and how they decide to move forward together or separately. Interestingly, it feels scarily accurate as to how people would respond because you have many who give up on one another if they’re not a 100% match, while others who achieve the coveted 100% match feel like perhaps, they don’t have to try as hard in their relationship anymore.
Fingernails is about a half-hour too long for the story they’re telling, though I did appreciate the film giving time to all the characters to explore just what they thought of the test. Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed work great together, balancing work chemistry with some romantic and leaving you curious as to how they really feel for one Another. Jeremy Allen White unfortunately isn’t given much to do in the film other than emphasizing Buckley’s hesitations, but his few moments work great opposite of her. I wish the film spent more time on the world it was creating, as the story at the heart is very straight-forward and doesn’t leave too much to your imagination in terms of where it’s going. Still, this is another quality release form Apple Original Films and a great streaming option if you’re looking for something different!
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