False Positive
Pregnancy thrillers carry a signified of natural presentiment within their material , something that is best exemplify in Roman Polanski’sRosemary ’s Baby . The 1968 psychological horror casts a long shadow in terms of aspirational revulsion filmmaking , and rightly so , owe to its superimposed discourse of the anxieties and ecstasies of motherhood . ground itself within his borrowed assumption , False Positive , A24 ’s latest offering , attempts to contribute a fairly post - modern braid to an already - overused horror trope . Despite a compelling first one-half , False Positivefails to imbue the pregnancy repugnance figure of speech with depth or ingenuity , accelerating to a banal finish .
author - film director John Lee aims his electron lens on copywriter Lucy Martin ( Ilana Glazer , who also co - wrote the book ) , an ambitious digital marketer who has been attempt to gestate with her married man Adrian ( Justin Theroux ) for two year . labour to the sharpness , the yoke decide to seek the tending of Dr. Hindle ( Pierce Brosnan ) , a leading fertility doctor with wide - publicise success stories . Using a ego - invented method of insemination , Hindle help Lucy get pregnant , much to the joy of the couple . Despite present a promising premise , the stale inside of Dr. Hindle ’s clinic perennially harbor a signified of uneasiness , one that is reflect in frenetic glimpses into Lucy ’s psyche and the way in which Hindle presents himself .
The gap between appearance and world widens when Hindle suggests Lucy opt for selective decrease , as she is pregnant with three embryos - two male twins and a female person . This is where Lucy ’s agency is wholly taken away , as she is force to fit into predetermined roles dictated by the men in her lifespan . As time shape up , a schism forms within Lucy , who is deplume between regaining autonomy over her physical structure and giving in to the apparent worry of those around her . The concept of motherhood is signally tinged with panic , as its many delight come nowhere near the sheer horror of birth another being into the bleakness of existence , specially when the premise is pregnant with covert and villainous intention .
Interestingly , Lee use the concept of “ mommy learning ability ” in edict to fuel the mount horror riddle Lucy ’s life-time . Are Lucy ’s delusions rooted in the vivid psychological variety that inherently accompany the unconscious process of pregnancy , or are they rooted in factors deemed more calculated and sinister ? At this juncture , False Positivestarts losing its sheen , unknowingly fall back into the hackneyed tropes that have been done to dying in the most stereotypical ways possible . Although the film attempts to craft a societal comment of form around the frenetic lives of the fiber in question , this intention fall flat due to a deficiency of story clearness and plot - driven inventiveness .
As per performances , Glazer is convincing as a woman on the verge of losing control condition while undergoing a change traditionally count sacred and positively living - changing . Although Brosnan ’s Hindle manages to unnerve the viewer from the get - go , his character , along with that of Theroux ’s , feels underused when compared to the electric potential of the respective actors and the premise as a whole .
Perhaps the weakest point ofFalse Positiveis its ending , which might be study controversial and vapid , peculiarly as the visual imagery utilized verges more on shock value than genuine apprehensiveness . An inescapable comparison to the flick ’s original germ material emerges , function to intensify the gap between the flick ’s coerce ending and Polanski ’s by nature discombobulate one . WhileFalse Positivebrims with the potential drop for a new epoch in revulsion , it at long last come off as an ill - conceived whim , a gaping rift in blank and time .
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False Positivehad its cosmos premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 18 , 2021 . It was released on June 25 , 2021 and is usable for streaming on Hulu . The film is 92 minutes long and is rated R for disturbing / flaming images , intimate content , graphic nakedness , and language .
After unmanageable struggles with richness , bang duo Lucy ( Ilana Glazer ) and Adrian ( Justin Theroux ) seem to have finally found their potential savior in the charming and mankind - renowned reproductive specialist Dr. Hindle ( Pierce Brosnan ) . But as their dream come true and Leslie Townes Hope transforms into happiness , gap seem in the façade of normalcy , sending the now - anticipant female parent into a spiral of suspicion that threatens her grasp on reality .
Lucy (Ilana Glazer) in False Positive
Lucy (Ilana Glazer) in False Positive
