THE FOX
FOUR STARS Nick doesn't know what to do when he learns his fiancee is cheating on him. Things change when he meets a talking fox with a good idea.
COMEDY AUSTRALIA English #THEFOX Starring Jai Courtney, Olivia Colman
There are films that require a little suspension of disbelief, and then there is THE FOX, which seems determined to see just how far it can stretch the elastic before it snaps. Thoroughly enjoyable and undeniably unhinged, Dario Russo's darkly comic Australian fable takes the familiar business of troubled relationships and sends it somewhere quite spectacularly bonkers.
Nick (Jai Courtney) is an ordinary country bloke whose fiancée Kori (Emily Browning) is having an affair. Faced with the prospect of a broken engagement, Nick encounters a talking fox (as you do). She proposes an ingenious solution: push Kori down a mysterious hole in the bush and, when she emerges, she'll be the perfect wife. It's essentially a factory reset for a malfunctioning partner, although the warranty conditions are somewhat unclear.
The notion that you can swap your significant other for a more compliant model is an absurdly fertile premise, and Russo gleefully explores every available opening. Naturally, things don't quite go according to plan as it soon becomes clear that things are not what they seem in Nick’s sleepy town. Events soon take an increasingly surreal excursion through sexual politics, male insecurity and the rather dangerous business of getting exactly what one wishes for.
The talking animals, incidentally, seem to have a considerably better grasp of the human condition than the humans themselves. There's a deliciously anarchic quality to the comedy, with the film finding fresh opportunities for absurdity as its increasingly improbable circumstances unfold.
There's also a pleasing self-deprecation to the storytelling. THE FOX occasionally seems to question its own profundity, inviting us to wonder whether its philosophical observations about love, nature and the human experience actually mean anything at all. It's a mischievous approach, particularly when the narrative itself seems to be having trouble deciding whether it's a cautionary fairy tale, a relationship satire or simply an excuse to indulge in some gloriously eccentric nonsense. Maybe it’s all these things, and maybe it isn’t.
The voice cast is excellent with Olivia Colman bringing deliciously clipped authority to the titular fox, while the late Sam Neill is a particular pleasure as an interfering, foul-mouthed magpie. Courtney, meanwhile, delivers a powerful and thoroughly engaging lead performance, finding just the right mixture of bewilderment, vulnerability and questionable judgement. With terrific support from Browning, Claudia Doumit and an on-form Damon Herriman as Nick’s dodgy mate, there’s a lot to watch.
A little wild, frequently hilarious and never short of surprises, THE FOX is a rather cunning piece of comic entertainment. Just remember, sometimes it's best not to look too closely at what's down the hole.
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