I was intrigued by the premise of a futuristic story where, due to the toxicity of the sun, people are forced to remain indoors until nightfall.  Sadly, the filmmakers seem to have adapted this premise purely to keep down filming costs, because the dissolution of our atmosphere is not important to the narrative at all.  What remains are bare-bones sets with a few special effects shots of travel tubes and bland cityscapes, which is what sometimes passes for science fiction in small-budget movies these days.  However, the script is far more intriguing about other matters.

Guy Moshe’s film introduces Adam Bird (James D’Arcy), a hardworking husband facing mortality because of a flawed heart.  His wife Reena (Anna Brewster) has left him, his two children are off in their own virtual worlds and his company is obsolete and failing rapidly.  But while Reena is not empathetic to his situation, she may have a radical solution to Adam’s problem, if he only has the guts to take action and think about the futures of everyone else.

This is a weird, depressing future.  Virtual reality has overtaken the physical world, which is photographed as barren, harsh and unforgiving.  Likewise, the characters are also starkly amoral, selfish and unlikable.  Adam is remarkably pathetic, unable to satisfy anyone anymore and afraid of dying that way.  For a time, this is pretty difficult to watch and care about.  But then the script begins to introduce its ideas about cloning, virtual reality, sexual desire and things get more interesting.  Thematically there is a great deal to consider in this movie, including the flip-the-script ending, which introduces a whole new set of issues.

I enjoy philosophical dystopian science fiction but I wish this particular tale had been made with greater appeal.  Delroy Lindo has an interesting role as a man who may know some of the answers but doesn’t want to be bothered, which perks up the middle of the story, but the greatest impact is made by Maria (Gabrielle Cassi), a virtual woman brought to luscious life only to want to find her own way forward.  This movie reminds me of George Lucas’ USC student film THX 1138, another dystopian futuristic story that sees little hope for our way of life except for sweeping change.  That’s fine, but this story could have been more audience-friendly.  ☆ ☆.  9 November 2021.