'Vert' Review: Sci-fi film’s plot is driven by a beautiful exploration of gender identities and not technology
Spoilers for ‘Vert’
The combination of futurisms and human experience as devices for storytelling often results in creating a kind of dystopian setting. It’s understandable why. With mass surveillance, automation, and artificial intelligence fast becoming an everyday reality, it is often difficult to imagine a future that is not bleak. With ‘Vert’, filmmaker Kate Cox attempts to break away from that trend.
That is not to say that ‘Vert’ is a happy story. But it’s not a sad one either. But how the short film separates itself from the noise of mainstream science-fiction is by not presenting a mass experience, but rather a mesmerizingly unique one. It’s also a story where the futurism is incidental to the story, but not the backbone of it.
It’s a story of a married couple, Emelia (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Jeff (Nick Frost), celebrating their 20th marriage anniversary. Emelia’s gift to her husband is a virtual reality device called Vert that lets them experience what their ideal self should look like -- by ideal, it means that it takes from the deepest corners of their subconscious and presents it for each other and themselves to view.
Jeff is visibly uncomfortable with the idea and it becomes clear why as the story moves along. While Emelia transforms into a younger self, with carelessly beautiful curly hair, a better physique, donning the same little black dress she wore when she first met Jeff, what was waiting for her in the next room was perhaps not what she expected. Jeff’s ideal projection was that of a younger blonde woman (Olivia Vinall).
Where the short film shines is not just in its tight writing, but also in the BAFTA-nominated Amuka-Bird’s stellar performance. Emelia was obviously surprised at what she saw, but she kept it to herself. She remarked on how beautiful she looked. She even gave Jeff’s projection a new name, Jem. They danced and laughed. And then, Jem asked if she could see what her body looked like. At that point, Emelia excused herself, saying that this was perhaps something she should do alone at first. As Jem explored her new body, Emelia exited the virtual reality device to go back to her room. She opens the second gift she had got her husband, a blonde wig -- implying that she may have long suspected that her husband had been struggling with gender identities.
The end reveal adds a dimension to an already beautiful story, making one wonder if the virtual reality exercise was her way of gifting Jeff a way to become Jem, and thereby being free of their quandary. It also makes Emelia’s own reaction doubly sad. She wants to be a good partner, but what if that costs her own happiness?
‘Vert’ in its 12-minute runtime paints two realities: one where Jeff finally gets to be who they want to be. And one where Emelia resigns to the fact that her partner is not the person she thought. One is happy and the other is sad, and both coexist in a heartwarming space. It curiously reminds you of the stories of Crystal and Sophia Burset in ‘Orange Is the New Black’. A wife being extraordinarily understanding of her partner’s gender identity while putting up a brave face that suggests that her understanding and her being happy are not the same thing at all.
The exploration of gender identities in a science-fiction theme is hardly a subject we see often. And Kate Cox’s short film not just makes a contribution in that department, but a very meaningful one at that. It explores the complexities of not just transitioning through gender identities, but also the emotional cost of it on the ones around. It’s a tender story that leaves one with a lot to think about.
'Vert' is part of the Prime Video’s SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection which is available to be streamed from April 27–May 6.
