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Vivarium Movie Review

Vivarium is a 2020 science fiction thriller film directed by Lorcan Finnegan and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. It’s a puzzling, but definitely fascinating feature.

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“What am I supposed to do with him?“

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Hoping to find the perfect place to live, a couple travel to a suburban neighborhood in which all the houses look identical. But when they try to leave the labyrinth-like development, each road mysteriously takes them back to where they started. Firstly, I thought I was in for a ‘Twilight Zone’-like storyline, and it certainly felt as such in its first act.

But then the movie changed for better and for worse by introducing this artificial being in the form of a child. Without spoiling anything, the film became very confounding in its storyline that is not easy to decipher and can be understood differently depending on the person watching the movie. It’s too ambiguous and complex for its own sake, but I still appreciated its ambition. For me, the movie stands as a metaphor against suburban lifestyle and family life as that is what literally ends up destroying its main characters.

Speaking of the two, they aren’t all that well developed unfortunately, but the acting is quite strong in both cases. Jesse Eisenberg isn’t all that likable, but he fits the role like a glove, and he acted quite well his frustrations throughout. Imogen Poots is more memorable and I found her very good here and quite underrated.

As for that kid, he was very creepy. I found him suitably eerie and otherworldly. Martin is even more ominous as this horrifically manufactured, fake and overly calculated salesman. Jonathan Aris is excellent in this role.

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Still though, Vivarium was much more interesting to me personally in its first half with the houses. I found the production design and effects splendid for its small budget and the overall concept felt fascinating. Do not get me wrong, I still liked the second half, but it was overly ambiguous and different from the first one. The movie has great dialogue and themes, but it needed better pacing and structure.

Vivarium is a strange beast. It’s a sci-fi thriller that is maybe too difficult to decipher, but I ultimately appreciated its complexities and ambition. It’s disparate in its structure, but the first half is so intriguing and the second one, though a bit messy, was suitably eerie in its scenarios. The movie overall could have been better, but it remains a strong example of an authentic genre picture made for those who strive for something different.

My Rating – 4

You can get Vivarium on Amazon.