Vivarium

“You're Home. Forever”

Filmology Rating: 2.5 out of 4

Vivarium is a 2020 science-fiction/horror film starring Jesse Eisenberg and the star of 2019's hit film 'Black Christmas,' Imogen Poots.

Tom (Eisenberg) and Gemma (Poots) are looking for the perfect home when they find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of tract houses. An odd turn of events leads to them being forced to raise a child that is not theirs. If they do so, they will be released from this endless world of suburbia.

While watching the film, I could not help but reflect on Darren Aronofsky's 'Mother!' Though 'Vivarium' is probably the better film, both suffer from telling a story that's more metaphorical than anything.

Tom and Gemma are not married yet, but decide to look for a home anyways. During the housing tour, they are abandoned by the salesman. The entire film is then about the two dealing with entrapment and Tom is constantly trying to find a way to escape.

For what the film was trying to do, the execution does feel scattershot. Apparently, this is a film about motherhood, which was only really brought up at the end when a character literally spells it out.

Being raised to force this child they did not make, Gemma's motherly instincts draw towards raising the kid and Tom wants nothing to do with the child and instead dedicates himself to digging a hole, which he thinks will lead somewhere (because he's tried every other direction and none have any successful outcome). The child is like the wrench in the relationship engine that forces the two to drift apart. The child ages very quickly -- so it only takes a few hundred days for it to be fully grown. I'm referring the child to "it" because that is how the characters refer to it as well because it is clearly non-human. It's as if the boy is a robot with a scarcity of human traits.

I greatly enjoyed the self-awareness of raising a child that this film takes. Whenever the child wants anything, it screams at the top of its lungs until it gets whatever it wants. It also constantly makes noises and never does what Tom and Gemma say. The child is really an incredibly unlikable character, intentionally, just by pure annoyance.

The premise itself is interesting, but the film does nothing with the idea past the concept. The entire film is in the house and is like a fever dream of raising this child. Other than that, not much happens.

The last fifteen minutes were also very off-the-walls that it began feeling like a dream sequence straight out of Dario Argento's 'Suspiria.' 'Vivarium' is an entertaining film for killing time, but doesn't offer much in its story or characters and relies greatly on its subtextual level.

Rating: Rent It

-Nolan