{"id":11059,"date":"2019-12-04T13:05:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T21:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=11059"},"modified":"2019-12-05T17:27:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T01:27:23","slug":"little-joe-review-a-stylish-and-visually-flawless-film-that-misses-the-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/little-joe-review\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Little Joe’ Review: A Stylish And Visually Flawless Film That Misses The Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have to respect a director who is willing to get stylishly weird. There’s always something commendable about a competent director taking a stab at something a little oddball. Unfortunately, sometimes a filmmaker’s knife misses the mark, sometimes by a hair, sometimes completely. Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe<\/em><\/a> falls somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n

The British psycho-thriller from the Austrian filmmaker has an interesting premise: Single mother, Alice (Emily Beecham), is a scientist at a bioengineering company. As the senior plant breeder, her current project is developing a plant that releases chemicals that make its owner happy \u2013 think natural Prozac. The flower responds to praise and affection, requiring the owner to forge a bond similar to that of a support animal.\u00a0From a scientific perspective, it’s a potentially fascinating story, one that is rooted in science you can actually believe. Unfortunately, the plant’s fatal flaw, written by Hausner and co-writer\u00a0G\u00e9raldine Bajard as the logical conclusion of this science, veers into the realm of hard-to-swallow, and that’s where the movie ultimately becomes a muddled waste of potential.<\/p>\n