Director: Benjamin Cleary
Writers: Benjamin Cleary
Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Awkwafina, Glenn Close
Synopsis: When a loving husband and father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he is presented with a controversial alternative solution to replace himself with a carbon copy clone.
Swan Song is not your typical science fiction thriller. Set somewhere in the future, where cell phones are holograms, and robots take your order, then give you tasty chocolatey goodness for snacks. If you thought that invention was incredible, personally, a mobile vending machine is the mountain top of technological innovation, hold onto your hats. How about cloning your entire mind, body, and soul? So, your family doesn’t have to endure the pain of watching you die of a terrible disease? Go broke when your health insurance hits their ceiling? And perhaps most importantly, have no one to help raise your children?
That’s the moral dilemma of Cameron Turner (Mahershala Ali). A graphic artist and family man diagnosed with a terminal illness. He has a beautiful wife, Poppy (played by the radiant Naomie Harris). An adorable son (Dax Rey), with another child on the way. So good husbands and fathers do what they must do. He comes across a highly secretive (and what must be obscenely well-funded) group that helps fix that problem. Cameron is introduced to Dr. Scott (Glenn Close). She offers a solution. They can create a complete version of him. This way, his family can avoid the mental anguish and not lose out on financial supports.
Swan Song was written and directed by Benjamin Cleary. He is perhaps best known for his short film Stutterer, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. The script is a soulful, contemplative reflection of what makes life worth living. Cleary’s film also works as a morality play and coming to grips with the lack of the precious commodity of time. Cameron beings to internally struggle with playing with his family’s future fate. He naturally is worried about this carbon copy, being the patriarch of his most precious asset. He is allowed a snippet of the final product, being introduced to Kate (Awkwafina). A woman who is a single mother is dying of cancer whose replacement is now looking over here with great care.
What makes Cleary’s film so stoic and lovely is the device used to allow the characters of Cameron (and Kate) to watch their loved ones for three days interact with their brand-new selves. (The patients, after the transfer is complete, stay in a seaside mountain hospital in the middle of the woods until their time is up). Ali’s character, naturally, struggles to see his replacement sleep with his wife and play father to his son. Even more challenging may be those intimate moments of reminiscing over memories of good and bad times.
There is such palpable and emotional chemistry between Ali and Harris that is remarkably vibrant. It feels like a romance that is the best kind of unconditional love. Both of these people have seen each other at their worst. All of this rests on Ali’s performance. He is that rare actor that can combine a fervent intensity and a remarkable amount of empathy with a tender, single glance. It’s quite a sight to see the ethical and moral dilemma that, for him, is quite a persona but more clinical than his medical team.
For those who expect a film like the Keanu Reeves vehicle, Replica’s, you will be sorely disappointed (or, in my case, delighted). You can argue that the film lacks a sense of urgency. However, heightened tension doesn’t bother to pander to the audience’s preferred clichés. Swan Song is a stoic, moving film about working through anticipatory grief and coming to the realization that some things are bigger than ourselves.
