TIFF 2023: Fingernails Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Romantic love is complex, strange and difficult to classify. It can feel so otherworldly that ironically science-fiction and fantasy often prove to be the genres that most accurately capture the feeling of love and explore its complexities in the most meaningful fashion. Modern classics such as Her and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind utilize high concepts and futuristic settings to examine what makes love such a central part of the human experience. The latter largely inspired the creation of Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou’s English-language debut, Fingernails. 

Set in a world only slightly removed from our own, Fingernails centers around a controversial new love test that determines the compatibility of a couple by placing one of each of their fingernails in a machine. The test reveals if both parties truly love each other, and is said to have a 100% accuracy rate. Buckley portrays Anna, a young woman in a long and committed relationship with her partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). Despite scoring a perfect score on the compatibility test three years prior, Anna is unfulfilled in her relationship and unsure whether she’s meant to be with Ryan. Searching for answers, she takes a job at the institute responsible for conduction these tests, where she meets Amir (Ahmed) and begins to question her feelings and her understanding of the concept of love.

Based on Nikou’s previous film Apples, and his affiliation with Yorgos Lanthimos, many will expect Fingernails to be visually stimulating and contain a mixture of offbeat humor and disturbing social commentary. Despite several outrageous scenes exhibiting the entirety of a fingernail being plucked from the hands of those taking the test, the strangest aspect of the film is Nikou’s decision to tell this story as a cerebral drama, rather than embrace the eccentricity of its premise. The lines of dialogue spoken by the actors are clearly intended to be humorous and are often delivered in a deadpan fashion, but the filmmaking is extremely understated, visually dull and does nothing to compliment the script. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what he is going for from a tonal perspective, especially within the first two acts the film. Usually this comes down to the screenwriter and filmmaker having conflicting visions, but it is both co-written and directed by Nikou. His confusion as to how to deliver his material onto the screen is shared by White whose stiff presence adds virtually nothing of value to the film.

As the film progresses and Anna’s relationship with Amir begins to take center stage, the film eventually finds its footing. Both Buckley and Ahmed deliver quietly powerful performance as two individuals stuck in a system where they’re programmed to believe that technology knows people better than they know themselves. They have very natural chemistry and their relationship is almost magical to watch unfold. Nikou’s restraint while exploring their relationship is commendable as he strays away from showing sexual activity, making each hug and passionate glance they share feel significantly more meaningful and intimate. Fingernails leaves audiences pondering some fascinating and extremely relevant ideas regarding the involvement of technology in one’s romantic endeavors.

In the end, Fingernails is far too tonally inconsistent to make as much of an impact on audiences as it wants, but it’s still a fairly moving effort thanks to some strong ideas and two excellent performances from Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed.

still courtesy of Apple TV+

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Tristan French