''Zoe'' is a 2018 American romantic

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

directed by

Drake Doremus Drake Doremus (; born March 29, 1983) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing the films ''Like Crazy'' (2011), which won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, ''Douchebag (film) ...

and starring

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...

Léa Seydoux Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne (; born 1 July 1985) is a French actress. Prolific in both French cinema and Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, she has received five César Award nominations, two Lumière Awards, a Palme d'Or a ...

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

Rashida Jones Rashida Leah Jones ( ; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is best known for her roles as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Offic ...

, and

Miranda Otto Miranda Otto (born 16 December 1967) is an Australian actress. She is the daughter of actors Barry Otto, Barry and Lindsay Otto and the paternal half-sister of actress Gracie Otto. Otto began her acting career in 1986 at age 18 and appeared in a ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on April 21, 2018. It was released on July 20, 2018, by

Amazon Studios Amazon MGM Studios is an American film and television production and distribution company owned by Amazon, and headquartered at the Culver Studios complex in Culver City, California. Launched on November 16, 2010, it took its current name on O ...

Plot

In the not-too-distant future, the most cutting-edge technology has honed romantic relationships down to a science: A computerized test can determine the likelihood of successful partnership between two individuals, and androids—known as “synthetics”—have been designed as the ideal partners, ones who are completely understanding and will never leave. Zoe and Cole work in the research facility responsible for developing this technology. Zoe and Cole are friends but Zoe harbors a crush on him, and is disappointed when she takes the compatibility test and finds out they have a 0% compatibility. When she tells Cole this information, he gently tells her that she is a synthetic. Synthetics had always been programmed to know they were synthetics, but Zoe was a new model and an experiment to see if a synthetic could pass as a human. Although Zoe has been implanted with false memories that she believed were her own, as in ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'', it is clear that Zoe is special as she has developed her own feelings. Cole gently takes Zoe into the world with this new self-awareness, seeing her reactions, but also falling in love with her. He is wary of getting physical with her, but they eventually do. Zoe feels that Cole is holding back. When Zoe is hit by a car, exposing her synthetic intestines, it causes Cole to pull away from Zoe after repairing her. Meanwhile, the AI company has shifted direction to releasing Benysol, a pill which gives the person taking it the feeling of being in love for several blissful hours. It is a huge success, with people going to Benysol clubs and even hanging out in certain parks to meet partners they take it with. Cole and Zoe clearly miss each other, but they both take Benysol with multiple partners, which only leaves them feeling empty. Cole's friends encourage him to be with Zoe, even though she is synthetic, but he cannot do it. One day Zoe visits the AI lab and discovers a room full of Zoes, the next generation of her, Zoe 2.0. She realizes that she does not wish to live without Cole and visits the brothel where she asks the owner to shut her down. However, at the last minute she changes her mind and some of the brothel girls take her to her apartment, where Cole finds her and professes his love. She cries, which her model was not supposed to be able to do.

Cast

as Cole *

as Zoe *

as Jewels *

Theo James Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis (born 16 December 1984) is an English actor. He gained recognition for playing Tobias Eaton in '' The Divergent Series'' film trilogy (2014–2016). He has starred in the horror films '' Underworld: Awak ...

as Ash *

as Emma *

as The Designer *

Matthew Gray Gubler Matthew Gray Gubler (, ; born March 9, 1980) is an American actor, best known for his role as criminal profiler Dr. Spencer Reid in the CBS television show ''Criminal Minds'', for which he also directed several episodes. Gubler has appeared in ...

as Michael

Production

On August 19, 2016, it was announced that

Charlie Hunnam Charles Matthew Hunnam (; born 10 April 1980) is an English actor. He portrayed Jax Teller in the FX (TV channel), FX drama series ''Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–2014), for which he was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for ...

and

would star in the untitled sci-fi romance film, which

would direct from a script by Rich Greenberg who collaborated with Doremus on the Emmy winning web series '' The Beauty Inside''. On October 25, 2016, Stuart Ford's

IM Global IM Global, LLC was an American independent film and TV production company. The company was founded by Stuart Ford in April 2007 and operating in international film, television and music production, as well as sales and international distribution ...

came on board to fully finance the film, titled ''Zoe,'' with

Scott Free Productions Scott Free Productions is a film and television production company founded by English filmmakers and brothers Ridley and Tony Scott in 1995. The result of multiple mergers between companies established by the Scott brothers since 1971, it curre ...

' Michael Pruss producing along with Doremus and Robert George. By May 2017,

replaced Hunnam in the film, a supporting cast of

and

were added, and a filming start date of May 8 was established, with the filming taking place in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on April 21, 2018. Prior to the premiere,

acquired distribution rights to the film in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, while

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

acquired distribution rights to release the film as a Netflix Original film in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

. IM Global merged with

Open Road Films Open Road Films, LLC (formerly known briefly as Global Road Entertainment) is an American independent film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Tom Ortenberg on March 26, 2011, as a joint ven ...

(who previously co-released '' Gleason'' with Amazon) to form

Global Road Entertainment Open Road Films, LLC (formerly known briefly as Global Road Entertainment) is an American independent film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Tom Ortenberg on March 26, 2011, as a joint ven ...

. The film was released on July 20, 2018.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, and an average rating of . Its consensus states "''Zoe'' has some interesting ideas but never manages to get a satisfying grip on them, settling for slow-moving sci-fi that ultimately fails to engage." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Morgan Rojas of ''Cinemacy'' believed that "the performances from McGregor and Seydoux are equally raw and vulnerable", and that Aguilera added a "star power" to the film. ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' editor Andrea Beach praised the movie for the two leading performances and additional work by "talented supporters—Rashida Jones, Miranda Otto, and Christina Aguilera".

References

External links

* {{Drake Doremus 2018 films American science fiction romance films Films scored by Dan Romer Films shot in Montreal Scott Free Productions films Amazon MGM Studios films Films directed by Drake Doremus 2018 science fiction films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language science fiction films Films about androids