Filmmakers Will Howarth and Tom McKeith are walking a fine line with their new feature film In Vitro, a low-key dramatic thriller that incorporates horror-tinged atmospherics and sci-fi elements; lesser directors might be concerned about alienating genre enthusiasts who want one thing or the other. Thankfully, they’re up for the task here, delivering a lean, occasionally brutal, story of a marriage crumbling amidst dark secrets and encroaching environmental dread. Fair warning, it’s best to go into the film totally blind, and it’s almost impossible to talk about it without revealing some of its plot, so spoilers ahead.
The film begins with a series of widescreen vistas showcasing the isolated cattle farm of Jack (Ashley Zukerman) and Layla (Talia Zucker). They appear to be the only people on the property, tending to a herd, feeding them, and monitoring huge vats that look like above-ground pools. We follow alongside them on their daily routine, which seems banal in a business-as-usual kind of way, and is only occasionally interrupted when a driver, Gabe (played by co-director Howarth), arrives to haul off some of the cattle. But further schisms begin to appear, too; when one of the tanks starts sounding an alarm, they use a crane to remove a full-size cow from it, notice some discoloration in the eyes, and then euthanize it. It’s significant that Layla seems more distraught by this than Jack; also significant is Jack trying to put the moves on Layla later that night as they prepare for bed. She politely refuses his advances, and he becomes petulant. She demurs, and the couple makes love.
The next day, Layla starts a conversation about taking a few days off from the ranch and visiting their son, Toby, who’s away at boarding school. Jack seems agitated that Layla would dare propose leaving their work, even though it’s clear she misses their child terribly (she spends her limited free time sitting in Tony’s empty room, contemplating redecorating). It’s only in passing that we finally get some exposition from a promotional video playing in the lobby of the facility; advanced climate change has wreaked havoc on farming and livestock around the world, and Jack and Layla’s farm is a facility for cloning animals as replacements for a dwindling global food chain. This is not some post-apocalyptic, desolate future, but a glimpse into the next five to ten years, where science has incrementally advanced but not yet conquered our current quagmire.
In this sense, In Vitro is a solemn film, quietly amassing small details that suggest things aren’t quite right here. But the narrative shifts into higher gear when an alarm and gunshots awaken Layla in the middle of the night. She rushes into the holding area of the facility and finds Jack with a rifle, and he explains that a cow escaped a ruptured tank and charged at him. The next morning, they set out to find the escaped animal, only for Layla to discover a hooded intruder on their land. The two struggle, the hood falls back, and Layla is suddenly staring at herself. Or, more precisely, a copy of herself. Jack isn’t just cloning cows, but has now made a new version of his wife, as well.
Clocking in at under 90 minutes, In Vitro scrambles through a dense narrative that splits the difference between introspective mood piece and white-knuckle thriller. If the latter sometimes smothers the former, the brevity is still appreciated. Some of the film’s headier ideas don’t get as much time to breathe as they might demand, but the trade-off is a propulsive quality that gives the proceedings the feeling of an actual film, and not just an episode of a streaming series. What is a clone’s life worth? What do we owe someone who has the same memories and emotions as we do? And how does one process the betrayal of a partner, even if — especially if — the partner is trying to advance potentially life-saving technology? In Vitro touches on all of this, and still has time for another stinger at the end. If this sounds of a piece with films like Memento or Primer, it’s not — there’s no real effort at mind-bending, nor is there any scrambled chronology or narrative gamesmanship that would turn everything into a puzzle to be solved. It is, frankly, simple — refreshingly so. There’s no need for facile, faux-hip junk like Black Mirror when good films like In Vitro are still getting made.
DIRECTOR: Tom McKeith & Will Howart; CAST: Will Howarth, Talia Zucker, Ashley Zukerman; DISTRIBUTOR: Saban Films; IN THEATERS/STREAMING: June 27; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 28 min.
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