Zoe (3 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #4

This film was strongly recommended to me by one of my friends. I read a brief synopsis, and it sounded thrilling. It was a last minute choice for my Thursday viewing.

The film takes place in the near future, when human-like robots have become commonplace. Maybe the word "robot" is incorrect. They're not made out of metal. They have soft skin which looks and feels human. They're called Synthetics, and they're programmed with skills such as gardening, housekeeping or dog walking. They can even carry out difficult tasks like driving buses.

Cole (Ewan McGregor) and Zoe (Léa Seydoux) work for a company called Relationists. They've perfected an algorithm for matching compatibility in romantic relationships. Their method can be used to assist dating apps, but it's more commonly used by couples who are already together to find out if their relationship will last. If the compatibility value is above 75% they should remain together for the rest of their life.

Cole and Zoe work in a department in Relationists that takes their technology to the next level. After analysing a person they program a Synthetic to have a compatibility value of close to 100%. The perfect partner. It's not just a sex toy. The Synthetic is a romantic counterpart, so realistic that a man can take her home to meet his parents without them suspecting anything.

Assisting in the laboratory is a Synthetic called Ash. He says he's in love with Zoe, but she turns him down because he's only a Synthetic. She has feelings for Cole, who turns her down because he's only recently broken up with his wife.

Then the shock comes. Cole tells Zoe that she's a Synthetic as well. Cole created her as perfectly compatible with himself. She's on the same technological level as Ash, but Cole experimented by not telling Zoe that she isn't human.

So the film is a love story. Zoe is programmed that she finds Cole irresistible, and she's also the perfect partner for him. If the story had been left at that, it would be a good film. The trouble is that other things are thrown in that make the film too complicated. They disrupt the main plot.

Another department in Relationists has developed a drug called Benysol. It releases the hormones that inspire the feelings of true love. Some people use it to intensify the excitement of a one-night stand, while elderly married couples use it to re-experience the feelings they had when they first met. What does that have to do with Cole and Zoe's love story? Nothing. It's linked in to their story, but it's just an annoyance.

There's also a sub-plot about Zoe meeting a Synthetic prostitute who's about to be destroyed because she's an older model whose skin is now decaying. Zoe wants to save her. Again, that's all irrelevant to the main story. It would have improved the film to leave it out.

Other things could have been added. Ash's jealousy of Cole is underplayed. Ash politely accepts that Zoe doesn't love him in return. Intensifying the love triangle would have made the film more interesting.

At present "Zoe" has only been released on disc in Germany. It's available on Amazon Prime in America and Netflix in Germany.