WARNING (2021) DIRECTED BY AGATA ALEXANDER [REVIEW]

2/11/2021

Ultimately, it cuts itself off from the greatness of the films it pays tribute to by presenting stories that won’t feel fully formed to many and by adding a coda which I am still not sure if it is meant to be funny or not, but which undermines everything that has come before.

Warning (2021)
A movie review by Mark Walker

In the near future, a group of disparate individuals contemplates the meaning of life as deadly asteroids hurtle toward Earth.

Initial release: 22 October 2021
Director: Agata Alexander
Cinematography: Jakub Kijowski
Music composed by: Gregory Tripi
Screenplay: Agata Alexander, Jason Kaye
Producers: Stanislaw Dziedzic, Cybill Lui Eppich, Cybill Lui
Cast: Alex Pettyfer as Liam
Alice Eve as Claire
Annabelle Wallis as Nina
Benedict Samuel as Vincent
Charlotte Le Bon as Charlotte
Thomas Jane as David
Patrick Schwarzenegger as Ben
Rupert Everett as Charlie

Warning – there may be some minor spoilers for WARNING in this review.
(There is also one pretty big one towards the end, but there is another warning!)

Director Agata Alexander developed WARNING as a result of her own existential crisis, waking up repeatedly at 4am wondering how everything was going to end. Worried that no-one else was panicking in the same way, she questioned what they had figured out about their lives and their existence that allowed them to be so calm? WARNING is the culmination of those late night/early morning ponderings on the meaning of life, what it is to be human, to love and, at the very end of it all, does any of it even matter?

WARNING opens with Thomas Jane’s astronaut/repair man, David, cast adrift in space after an accident untethers him from the satellite he is fixing. Drifting alone in space, staring down at Earth, he too contemplates his existence and the meaning of it all. I was immediately drawn into this opening with shades of Gravity (2013), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Love (2011), (three great films) and I was ready for another mind-boggling and confusing meditation on what it means to be human and alive.

But I didn’t quite get that.

(Just for the record, I didn’t find Gravity mind-boggling and confusing!)

As the film leaves David drifting, we are introduced to a number of different characters back down on earth, all struggling with their own existence. They face questions about relationships, their identities, love and life, all against the backdrop of news reports on Jane’s astronaut, strange storms, and an approaching asteroid.

Charlie is a robot programmed to help and care for people, but he is ageing and outdated. Brian has responsibility for Charlie and other robots like him and is determined to find a new home for the very much alive and almost sentient Charlie. When Charlie is rejected by yet another family, Brian and Charlie’s relationship is tested as difficult decisions need to be made and Brian is forced to play God.

Claire is a neurotic young woman whose life revolves around the omnipresent GOD device (think Alexa with serious control issues) which records sins and hears your prayers. When the device crashes and is replaced by the new and improved GOD 2.0 she starts to question her reliance on the all-seeing device and takes drastic action to remove its insidious influence on her life.

Ben and Anna have what appears to be the perfect relationship, but Anna is plagued by glimpses and visions of a mysterious, hooded stalker. Their relationship breaks down when Anna discovers her stalker was actually Ben who has been using sinister technology (think a VR Facebook that lets you stalk people in memories – you know, what they’ve just announced they are developing this week) to follow and spy on her. Ben can’t handle the break-up and his life is in ruins without Anna.

Liam takes his new girlfriend, Nina home to meet his family who also happen to be immortal. Nina is not, and the class difference plays out over dinner before Liam’s mother takes drastic action to stop her son ruining his life with a mortal girl.

Magda needs money to escape her trailer park life and alcoholic mother. For a big pay out, she allows middle-aged Pavel to inhabit her body using a technology known as “Second Skin” so he can experience life as a young girl. Things don’t go according to plan and the naïve Pavel soon discovers what life can be like for women, with very unpleasant consequences.

In between chapters, we return to David floating in space, slowly losing his mind and coming to terms with his fate. A late image of David staring down at the Earth hints at the final images of 2001, as Dave (I see what they did there) Bowman, now the Star Child, surveys his dominion.

WARNING is full of great ideas that explore the film’s themes and, as another review I read suggests, are worthy of Black Mirror episodes, exploring people’s reliance on social media, the potential impacts of near future technology and the break-down of community/society. It is, very clearly, a warning.

The film is also nicely shot, looks good and has some great performances from a decent cast. Thomas Jane is suitably gruff as David and Rupert Everett does a fantastic job of making Charlie ‘human’ but also slightly ‘off.’ Alice Eve presents Claire in a way that probably reflects a lot of people reliant on social media for validation and Garance Marillier puts in a great performance as Magda/Pavel convincingly portraying Pavel as more naïve than the young woman he is inhabiting.

However, the number of stories we see, and the short running time mean that there is limited time to explore them in detail and many viewers may feel a bit short-changed as not all sections are tied up in nice little bows. Claire abandons her reliance on GOD 2.0, but at what cost? Liam’s family dynamic has a strong potential to explore issues of race and class, but this section is over before you know it, the implications of his mother’s actions largely ignored. David talks to the abyss of space about this daughter, but we get very little time with her to see things from her perspective. Personally, I am here for films that ask questions and encourage the audience to answer them (2001 is my favourite film of all time) but not everyone is going to be as happy, and I suspect this might be where some of the poorer review scores come from; some of the stories just needed a little more time to further explore the film’s themes. While I am happy to have questions posed, it felt as though the film itself didn’t quite know where some of the stories were going and some viewers just won’t have the desire to do the heavy lifting for the film.

My biggest issue was, however, the ending.

***FAIR WARNING – THE NEXT COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS CONTAIN SERIOUS SPOILERS***

As David watches the asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere, breaking up and pummelling the planet with numerous, civilisation-ending meteors, he is left as the last man in existence. This conjures up feelings and emotions that will make you consider your own life and future and asks the question of how you would react in that situation; what is the meaning of your life? Imagining yourself, drifting alone in space while looking down at everything you ever knew or loved burning is going to make you think.

But then… the punchline.

The film ends in a way that I am not sure whether it is David’s fragile sanity finally snapping, or an attempt at a joke. Either way, it really damaged the ending for me, and the philosophical questions that had been asked up to that point were lost in a clunky one-liner.

We went from 2001 to The Simpsons and, while I have no issue with either, the switch was jarring and out of place. It is funny, but the rest of the film is not played for laughs, so it just didn’t quite land for me.

***YOU CAN COME BACK NOW***

I really wanted to love this film, it sounded right up my street, but I was left a little disappointed immediately after watching WARNING. However, the following day I found it was still stuck in my head and, despite what I said about the various sections feeling ‘incomplete’ I did find myself thinking through the stories, what they all mean and how they reflect issues and questions we are all facing. Four or five days later, although I appreciate I was writing this review, my mind kept coming back to WARNING and its tales of, well, warning.

A few days after watching I would give WARNING a 7/10 but the very final lines of dialogue with David grated on me and felt wildly at odds with the rest of the movie, so WARNING loses a point for that, but gets a still respectable 6.

There are some very low scores on IMDB which I think are grossly unfair and do not really reflect the attempt made by the writers and director. WARNING sets itself up as an existential examination of the human condition and the meaning of life which isn’t always successful, but there is much to like and worth your time if you like smart science-fiction.

The film is not perfect, and some people will still find the lack of resolutions problematic. However, at only 85 minutes, you won’t get bored but, if you want a film that answers more questions than it poses, then perhaps WARNING is not for you.

WARNING is a film with lofty ambitions which, for me, didn’t quite hit the mark, although I did enjoy it. Ultimately, it cuts itself off from the greatness of the films it pays tribute to by presenting stories that won’t feel fully formed to many and by adding a coda which I am still not sure if it is meant to be funny or not, but which undermines everything that has come before.