Review: Vivarium

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It's a forever home.

Gemma (Imogen Poots) and her boyfriend Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) are looking at purchasing a house. They go to a property management office and meet a very strange man named Martin (Jonathan Aris) who takes them to view a development full of identical houses...then they find out they can't leave. They're stuck eating tasteless food, no matter where they run, they end up back at house # 9 and on top of that ,they receive a mysterious package with a live baby in it and the note "raise the child, and you can leave."

When I first saw the trailer for this, I was immediately sold on the creepy premise. And the film keeps that suspense up throughout. So much so that I wish they had expanded on it a bit more. Don't get me wrong, it's not completely ambiguous. It reminds me a bit of Ghost Story or Mother! These films do come full circle like this one does, but it still does leave some questions up in the air.

Imogen Poots really acts her ass off in this. I've always been a fan but she is doing the absolute most here. She has great chemistry with Jessen Eisenberg. He gets a bit less to do, and his character makes some puzzling choices, but I enjoyed him here too.

At 97 minutes, this film breezes by, even with the repetitive scenery, which looks fake in the best way possible. I know, we're used to heavily critiquing bad CGI or production design, but the artificial look this film has over all is absolutely perfect for the story.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "If they want it to live they'll come get it." - Tom (Jesse Eisenberg)

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