The Fox is described as a “darkly comic folktale” by those who made it, but in reality, the film struggles to push the darker, more ambitious elements as much as it sets out to do. It’s funny, and it’s increasingly incredibly ridiculous, but it never feels like it’s made for anything more mainstream than a film festival audience. That being said, it was still an entertaining watch, but I couldn’t help but feel like it didn’t reach its potential in the final third as much as I hoped it would in the early stages.
It follows Nick (Jai Courtney), a naive everyman character, who discovers his fiancée Kori (Emily Browning) has cheated on him. Unsure what to do next, he encounters a talking fox (Olivia Colman) who offers him an interesting proposal to solve all his problems. There’s not really any other way to describe the plot, as it’s as wacky as it sounds. I can only assume it’s trying to offer some sort of analogy about the animalistic nature of humans, which is hinted at in the film’s opening monologue, before becoming more implied. The film then gradually gets weirder after the advice given to him involves pushing Kori into a magic hole, which he proceeds to do. We then spend the rest of the film (despite the full commitment to the silliness from the cast) with a plot that doesn’t quite work and enough foxes to make Roald Dahl proud.
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Annoyingly, I found it unusually frustrating (for a comedy) that it often felt unclear who we’re really supposed to be rooting for throughout. It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine amidst movies, alongside weirdly unnecessary nudity (which this film also includes). All of the characters were heavily flawed to varying degrees, and none of them really show more than their surface-level motivations. Kori and Derek (Kori’s Boss, played by Damon Herriman) are both pushed into the hole as a result of their partners’ discovery of their cheating, but there was a weird moral murkiness that followed. With Nick and Diana (Derek’s partner, played by Claudia Doumit) never really question that something is wrong with the changed versions of their partners until it’s too late. We only ever see an attempt at a complete story arc for Nick as he discovers the truth behind the magic hole, with Kori’s story feeling like an afterthought. As the film progresses, it feels the story is completely reliant on trusting that the audience won’t question anything, especially the film’s often minimal logic. It almost nails that goal with a hilarity to the matter-of-fact conversations various characters are having with the impressive-looking puppet animals (with my favourite being Sam Neill‘s gossipy magpie), but when the film reaches the final third, it’s hard not to feel frustrated by the characters’ lack of evolution. I understand it’s a comedy, but with so much implied commentary throughout, it still felt like there should have been some more resolution to the characters’ journeys.
The film quite often references the term ‘it is what it is’ as a source of comedy, and perhaps that’s also an encouragement on how seriously we’re supposed to take the film and its implications. There is plenty of clever humour throughout, but it doesn’t quite outmatch the elements that didn’t work for me. The cast all put in strong performances with the clever script by Dario Russo (who also directs), yet it still felt like something was missing. I think it’s a film that would have landed stronger on a more casual watch compared to a room full of critics, but for now, I can’t help but feel frustrated at its inability to reach its ambitions. A sentiment perhaps echoed by the room, with more laughs in the first half than the second, which is never the best sign for a comedy.
★ ★ ★
90 MIN / Jai Courtney, Emily Browning, Damon Herriman, Claudia Doumit, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto, Olivia Colman / Dario Russo / Causeway Films
