Studies consistently show that our society is increasingly lonely and isolated. Even the young who typically are enjoying the romantic exploration and freedom that typically accompanies youth in the post-World War II western world are having less sex and less relationships than ever. All this is occurring as our society is seemingly more connected than ever through social media and dating apps. So through endless ways of reaching people throughout the world, how do we navigate creating real bonds that last? A look into an alternate science fiction world explores the question of whether or not technology can ever hold the answer.
In Fingernails we meet Anna (Jessie Buckley), a young woman who lives with her longtime boyfriend and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) while searching for a new job. Anna and Ryan are certain that they’ve found true love, as it has been scientifically proven by a controversial new technology that tests partner compatibility by removing and testing their fingernails created by a doctor named Duncan (Luke Wilson). Anna soon takes a job at Duncan’s center The Love Institute, unbeknownst to Ryan, where she assists technicians Amir (Riz Ahmed) in preparing couples for their tests. As Anna works alongside Amir more, she begins to wonder about her increasing feelings toward him and doubts about her supposedly rock solid, scientific connection to Ryan.
Fingernails wades into the nature vs. nurture debate, but interestingly applies it to the concepts of love and romance through scientific fiction. It’s an intriguing thematic twist that the film and its script are able to successfully pull off. The basis of the procedure within the film created by Duncan seeks to use science and logic to make love as painless and effortless as possible. As the film continues on however, we inevitably learn that love is about feeling and chemistry between two souls rather than the chemistry that inhabits their physical bodies. In trying to intellectualize love, the characters in the film are unsuccessfully trying to logically explain what is only explainable through emotion. Simplifying the complicated is a wish that humans throughout the ages have surely hoped at one point or another could be achieved. But the relationships between Anna and Ryan and Anna and Amir give life to those who believe that love cannot be reasoned with or negotiated, but felt on an emotional level that humans are loathe to explain but quick to experience deeply.
These relationships effectively communicate the film’s theme. As we watch Anna and Amir grow closer through their close proximity at work and becoming familiar with who each other are, we see the unmistakable development of attraction despite the science telling us they are incompatible after having their fingernails tested. Anna and Ryan on the other hand are clearly drifting apart as the passion within their relationship is dwindling and they fall into a routine that is dulling the flame between them that once was. Despite what the audience can feel as they watch the longtime couple interact, the science within the film pegs Anna and Ryan as a 100% match in love and compatibility. The point is made that what human beings feel in love and romance is not something that can be quantified or examined through reason. Love is complex and thus, how it is measured is as well.
With Anna and Ryan especially, their relationship is more nuanced than what a scientific measurement can show. Undoubtedly, the two do still love one another as the testing showed. A deeper look at that love however will show that they love they now have more closely resembles a deep caring for one another than strong romance. It is this fact that makes their relationship perhaps the best example I have ever seen put to screen of the idiom “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
Fingernails is an interesting premise that asks interesting questions, but its actual entertainment value never quite reaches the same heights as the themes it explores. Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, and Jeremy Allen White are all big talents that do well here, but feel like they never hit the full extent of their acting prowess, an encapsulation of what ails the film itself.
Image: AppleTV+
