Written and directed by Dario Russo THE FOX helms a fairly bizarre plot centred around a fox hunter who runs into a talking fox who begs for her life by offering to turn his fiancé into the perfect woman.
To begin with, the puppetry work on the foxes, while it isn’t shown off too much, there’s a lot of charm there that you wouldn’t have if they opted for CGI, it completes the movie and matches the zany storyline, along with this it’s only the talking animals that puppetry was used for, such as the magpie as well, making them stand out amongst the other animals featured,
As was just alluded to, The Fox (Olivia Colman) doesn’t get too much screen time, herself, which is a shame. This did confuse me for two thirds of the movie but there is a reason within the plot as to why she is hardly in it. However it is always a joy hearing Olivia Colman acting in a crude manner and the bit with her and Sam Neill as the Magpie was golden. On that subject, the late Sam Neill is easily the standout here, playing the Magpie that comically warns the humans of the Fox and often snitches on other humans.
In regards to the humans, led by Jai Courtney and Emily Browning, their performances were quite good, especially Emily Browning after the Fox works her magic. The beginning of the movie very much reminded me of OBSESSION with this idea that a man isn’t satisfied with his relationship to a woman and instead of facing anything head on he jumps at the chance to try something absurd to change this. The movie does lead you to believe that Browning’s character has completely changed in favour of what Courtney’s character wanted of her which did make me fear for where this was going to end up going, but I was put at ease as the story unfolded in the third act.
When it comes to the cinematography, a fair amount of the movie is shot at night, with it being quite common these days to have bleak night scenes that make it difficult to see anything, this isn’t an issue in THE FOX, while it’s not particularly interesting visually it’s never difficult to make out what is going on. The cinematography continues to be serviceable throughout the rest of the movie as well.
THE FOX is intended to be a dark comedy and it definitely lives up to that, Olivia Colman is hilarious despite her limited screen time, along with Sam Neill. I find that the movie tackles this idea that humans will do absolutely anything to avoid solving problems head on and maturely, even seemingly poking fun at that with how Claudia Doumit’s character reacts to the absurdity of what Courtney’s character has been told to do by the fox but she doesn’t take much convincing at all and all the humans are like that. The absurdity of it all never catches the humans off guard, nobody is ever shocked at all by the presence of talking animals, it’s kooky.
Overall, id definitely recommend THE FOX to anybody in need of an easily digestible 90 minute dark comedy, with it delivering on that in spades when it comes to its riotous characters brought to life with charming puppetry. It isn’t anything that’s going to move the needle in any and it does prioritise the chaotic absurdity of what’s going on in the movie over any kind of straight forward messaging but you’re certain to never forget it.
rating: 7/10
