MY ZOE

UK/Germany/US, 2019, 100 minutes, Colour.

Julie Delpy, Sophia Ally, Richard Armitage, Gemma Arteton, Daniel Bruel, Saleh Bakri, Lindsay Duncan.

Directed by Julie Delpy.

My Zoe is very much a film by Julie Delpy. After a substantial career as an actress, in French cinema as well is in the American movies, she moved into writing and direction. She has both written and directed My Zoe and stars in it.

But, what she has provided is two films in one – or, rather, one film, then a complete change of pace and another in the latter half.

The first part of the film is set in Berlin. Julie Delpy plays Isabelle, a research scientist, separated from her British husband, James (Richard Armitage), caring for her young daughter, Zoe (Sophia Ally). James blames Isabel for the alienation, especially after the birth of Zoe. He has become aggressive, even violent towards his wife but devoted to his daughter.

The key of the first part of the film, the first film, is Zoe becoming ill, the concern of her parents, the mystery of the illness, hopes for recovery, the dashing of these hopes and the consequences. This is a sad and challenging film in itself.

But, after the death of Zoe, Isabelle does not seem to go into mourning, and the film changes tone completely. Isabelle draws on her science background and the film becomes an exploration of science, genetic engineering and experimentation, moral issues, legal issues. The new setting is Moscow and introduces two significant characters, Thomas (Daniel Bruel) and his wife (Gemma Arteton), the film moving into quite some dialectic, serious conversations between the three central characters.

And this is what films can do – raise moral and ethical issues in principle but dramatise them through the characters and their crises, challenging audiences to think but also challenging audiences with empathy and potential conflicts between the two.

There is an enigmatic final aspect of the screenplay but audiences who have been alert, even puzzled, during the opening credits and the focus on pregnancy, will realise at the end something of what has happened.

Better for a review to stop here – no spoiler alerts.

1. The title and its focus on the young Zoe? The impact of her illness and death? The second part of the film, cloning, success? The title and the focus on Isabelle and her love for her daughter, possessive of her daughter?
2. The European settings, the city of Berlin? The transition to Moscow? The musical score?
3. Julie Delpy, producing and directing, writing, taking the role of Isabelle?
4. The family situation, international backgrounds and parents? International travel and work? The alienation between husband and wife? The concerned for their daughter, custody? Legal issues? Arrangements? The effect on Zoe?
5. Zoe, her age, vitality, at school? Her response to each parent, love? The response to the babysitter? At school? Having the cold, concerned? The night, in a coma, hospital, the surgery, the treatments, injuries to the brain? The decision to turn off life support? The babysitter and her mother, not reporting the accident and dizziness? Her shame?
6. James, his background, the marriage, devotion to his daughter, alienation from his wife, harsh and confronting? Issues of custody, outings? Resistance to helping and picking up from school? Isabelle and her needs, job applications? His criticism of her stances taught work? The impact of the accident, the vigilant both parent to the hospital, the decisions?
7. Isabelle and her British mother, the visit, the clashes and arguments?
8. The film changing and becoming another film? Isabel, the visit to Moscow, taking the samples from Zoe? Her intentions?
9. Audience reaction to this story, cloning, stem cell research, issues of morality, issues of the law? The impact of the mother, the procedure for her rather than for her daughter? The status of this kind of cloning and medical ethics?
10. The visit to Thomas, discussions with him, his reiterating the morality and the law, his personal talents and research? The discussions with his wife? His associate? Isabelle and her putting her case, pleading? His decision, the visualising of the procedures, the number of samples, one in reserve? Pregnancy, miscarriage? His final decision, the issue of surrogacy, discussing it with his wife, her initial reservations, the meetings with Isabel, the discussions, empathy?
11. The issue of surrogacy, the initial image of Thomas’s wife and her pregnancy? And the screenplay not making explicit that she had been the surrogate for the pregnancy?
12. Years passing, Isabelle, in Moscow, Zoe growing up, as she was when the film opened? James and his visit, his own life, in London, the son?
13. The overall impact of both parts of the film, emotional, ethically challenging?