THE STORY – Nick, affable heir to a wealthy rural landowner, discovers his fiancée, Kori, is cheating on him and wants nothing more than to just fix the problem. One night, he captures a rogue Fox, and she offers him a trade-off: if Nick lets her live, the Fox will help him save his relationship. All he has to do is push Kori into a magic hole with the power to change her into the perfect partner. Nick follows the Fox’s advice and the Kori who re-emerges seems to be everything he ever wanted. Until her strange new quirks make him question his decision.
THE CAST – Jai Courtney, Emily Browning, Damon Herriman, Claudia Doumit, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto & Olivia Colman
THE TEAM – Dario Russo (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 89 Minutes
Some filmmakers have a voice so clear that you know in the film’s opening minute whether or not you’ll be on their wavelength. Dario Russo is one of those filmmakers. His debut feature, the offbeat, wickedly comic fable “The Fox,” opens with a piece of narration that sets the tone. Delivered in the chipper tones of Oscar-winning Olivia Colman’s inimitable voice, it posits that all animals have their own particular interests – “cats are torturers, magpies are gossips, frogs are sex pests, and dogs are degenerates.” Humans, she says, have the most of all, which leads them to avoid responsibility for as much as they can, as evidenced by such popular phrases as “what can you do,” and “it is what it is.” If only humans knew what animals would do in their shoes, she wonders.
Of course, what she doesn’t mention is that foxes are, traditionally, tricksters, and this particular fox that Colman voices has quite the trick up her sleeve. When the fox first speaks, Nick (Jai Courtney) doesn’t seem to think twice about it. An affably gentle giant of a man whose only job is helping his father around the family farm, Nick just wants the fox to stop eating their chickens. When she promises to help him with his problem if he spares her, he’s more confused that she thinks he has any problems than that a fox is talking to him. Nick’s problem is clear to everyone but himself: His fiancé, Kori (Emily Browning), doesn’t love him anymore and is sleeping with her boss, Derek (Damon Herriman), who also happens to be married to her best friend Diana (Claudia Doumit). But when the fox tells Nick of a hole in the woods that can turn Kori into a version of herself that’s exactly what he wants her to be, it doesn’t take him long to get Diana on board with a plan to push her into it. When Kori comes back the next day, naked and covered in dirt, she certainly seems different. She’s perky, agreeable, and horny, all things that Nick likes at first. Slowly, though, he becomes more and more unnerved by Kori’s new personality. Equally unnerved, Derek demands to know what happened to Kori, leading to Diana pushing him into the hole as well, and that’s when things start getting really weird.
Browning embraces the strangeness of her role, crawling around like a feral child and tossing off snarky retorts with a cheery smile. She’s delightfully wild, recognizable as human but possessing the soul of something different. Courtney has fun playing against type, pulling some fantastically funny faces as Nick reacts to the increasingly bizarre proceedings. Harriman goes even further, mining Derek’s distress for comic gold. However, the film belongs to its animals. The practical puppets look great, with the not-quite-perfectly-synced mouth movements adding to the film’s surreality. Sam Neill (as a gossipy magpie) and Colman’s pitch-perfect vocal performances are the glue that holds the film together, embodiments of its unique comic voice. Their bright, upbeat readings of even the nastiest lines give the film a pretty wide mean streak, but still keep it light enough to be funny. The dialogue has plenty of personality on its own, but in the hands of these two veterans, it becomes even more vibrant.
The whole film has a surfeit of personality, thanks in large part to the multi-hyphenate Russo’s distinct voice permeating every aspect. In addition to writing and directing, Russo also edited and scored the film. That level of control may seem like a lot, especially for a first-time filmmaker, but when you have a vision as specific as Russo does here, it makes sense. “The Fox” presents itself as a fable for adults, although our narrator helpfully tells us at the end that if it does have a moral (as all fables should), she doesn’t know what it is. That doesn’t mean that Russo doesn’t, though, and while that message may boil down to little more than a “be careful what you wish for” riff, at least it goes about getting to that message in as unique a way as possible. “The Fox” gets weirder and weirder as it goes, culminating in a third-act twist that makes the story far more interesting and potentially even more rewarding on rewatches. While Russo’s sense of humor may not be to everyone’s taste, his singular voice and unique premise make “The Fox” an exciting debut.
