Directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper (who-co-wrote the script with Brian Clark) hit the nail on the head when setting up the world and the atmosphere in Vesper, a sci-fi thriller set in some futuristic version of Earth that has evolved to no longer require humans. The oligarchs and power structure develop one-use seeds, good for a single harvest, that go for an exorbitant amount of money. On the lower end of the class spectrum, few have survived the rapidly shifting changes in climate and food supply. In other words, the movie’s background details would have made for a fascinating, if bleak, epic of its own instead of the insulated and fairly familiar story. This movie could be the poster child for diminishing returns on tremendous potential.
The eponymous protagonist, at least, is worth our investment and attention. Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a purely original heroine, belonging to no archetype that immediately comes to mind. She trawls the gloomy and barren landscape for food sources and small animals to become her latest guinea pigs in a series of experiments, all designed to figure out a better way to live. Her ultimate goal is to become an engineer at the Citadel, which naturally is the center of existence in this particular community. Her father Darius (Richard Brake) was paralyzed from the neck down while fighting as a soldier for the Citadel and now speaks via a floating drone of a smiling robot, and her uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan) runs a pseudo-criminal organization, arranging purchases of seeds from the Citadel by selling the blood of the townspeople.
The film’s main conflict is between Darius and Jonas, both played fairly well by Brake and Marsan, whose difference of opinion about joining the commune developing just outside the Citadel’s borders comes to a boiling point. Darius maintains the population numbers through “breeding,” which is exactly what one is imagining in the basest sense of the word. The screenwriters suggest strongly that many of the young people in this commune are blood relatives by way of Jonas and the female members. That, in the creepiest development of the plot, is the reason he wants Vesper to remain and why Darius, naturally, objects. There is some unnerving potential in this storyline, but Jonas ultimately devolves into a much duller villain with more generic ambitions by the climax.
That would be because of the secondary conflict, which emerges with the introduction of a new character to this world. Camellia (Rosy McEwen) crash-lands in a spacecraft nearby and becomes separated from her father. Before Jonas can discover the wreckage and take control of whatever situations develop from the whole mess, Vesper hides her away. As it turns out, Camellia has pull in the Citadel and will allow for passage if Vesper reunites her and her father.
The strong set-up, which also involves the compelling world-building by directors Buozyte and Samper and a crew that made efficient use of a low budget, paves the way for an elaborate if disappointing game of hide-and-seek. The one constant is Vesper herself, played with resolute determination by Chapman, but Vesper is one missed opportunity after another, resulting in not much more than a busy climax with a lot of superficial stakes.
Photo courtesy of IFC Films
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