From Jeremy Kibler

Christos Nikou’s Fingernails is a low-key relationship drama with a dystopian sci-fi wrinkle. The filmmaker’s English-language debut, co-written with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner, centers on Anna (Jessie Buckley), an elementary teacher looking for another job. She takes up an open position at the Love Institute founded by Duncan (Luke Wilson), who’s come up with a new test to ensure no relationship is uncertain. The so-called test being given to couples involves each partner having a fingernail extracted; then their fingernails are placed in a microwave-looking machine with a result that determines whether either (50%), neither (0%), or both partners (100%) are still compatible. Love is hard work, yes, but love is also pain, physical pain.

For a while, Fingernails is absorbing and dryly amusing. Director Nikou takes an intimate approach, focusing mainly on Anna as our conduit into this world. Anna ends up shadowing the institute’s top instructor, Amir (Riz Ahmed), but as they work closely in counseling over a dozen couples, Anna begins questioning her happy relationship with long-term partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). Three years ago, Anna and Ryan took the test, which yielded positive results despite Ryan doubting the accuracy. Have they just taken each other’s mutual feelings for granted and fallen into a stale comfort zone? And even if Anna has developed feelings for Amir, are they actually a match?

The overall concept behind Fingernails is so intriguing and the details so visually witty and off-kilter, being set in a reality that looks like the world we know but offers an alternate form of couples therapy. Instead of getting turned into an animal of your choice if you don’t find a romantic partner (as in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster), this new societal norm is likewise treated as something the viewer just takes as read. Wisely, the script doesn’t get into the weeds about how the data analysis works, shifting its concerns more onto the character dynamics at hand. 

Fingernails had the possibility of being an aching love story of what-ifs, but that would mean feeling more connected to the people involved. Because there really isn’t much to these characters, the core relationship just doesn’t fully take off as it should. Anna is idealistic about love, and Jessie Buckley brings an open-hearted vulnerability to her. She even gets a brief physical comedy bit involving shock therapy. Riz Ahmed is very understated but endearing as Amir, bringing a melancholy and a possible longing without expressing it out loud. As Ryan, Jeremy Allen White does get the thankless part of this quasi-love triangle, but he finds a nice balance between feeling like the right choice and the boring choice for Anna. Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek) only gets one scene as Amir’s live-in girlfriend that, given how she pops in Schitt’s Creek as Alexis Rose, it does seem like a waste of her talents. 

In spite of thin characterization and conflict making way for some wheel-spinning, Fingernails is still worthwhile enough for its fine performances and several little grace notes. A scene where Anna quietly sings Yazoo’s “Only You” in her office, while Amir stands in the doorway, is wistful and just lovely. The fingernail-yanking is, thankfully, kept to suggestion; seeing the pliers meet the top of the fingernail, followed by a muffled scream (the couples are given a wooden spoon to bite down), is more than enough to get the squeamish wincing. 

So, can compatibility be measured and quantified? Fingernails fortunately doesn’t have all of the answers, and bravo to Nikou for finding a fresh and thoughtful way into the questions we have about lasting relationships. The journey should be the destination, but getting there starts to be somewhat of a slog. 

Rating: 3/5

Fingernails screened at the 32nd Philadelphia Film Festival and will hit limited theaters on October 27, 2023 before streaming on Apple TV+ starting November 3, 2023.

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