Bioengineering that makes people happier: What could possibly go wrong? That’s the cynical, topical theme of the sci-fi indie “Little Joe.” Not since the field of poppies in “The Wizard of Oz” has a scarlet flower wielded so much beautiful menace. Emily Beecham (AMC’s “Into the Badlands”) stars as Alice, a botanist and single mother who names her creation after her son (Kit Connor). Ben Whishaw (“A Very English Scandal”) co-stars as her smitten assistant, one of the first to inhale the plant’s pollen and begin to subtly change.
The subtlety, alas, keeps “Little Joe” from fully blossoming. The flower’s ability to make its victims blandly content and slavishly dedicated to the plant’s survival is so muted, it’s barely perceptible. But the point of the unfurling, mind-snatching effect is still chilling: In interviews, test subjects swear they feel better than ever, while their perplexed relatives insist they’re not the same people. It’s a glaring metaphor for the age of Big Pharma, and concurrent fears about the sacrifice of personality on the altar of emotional pain management.
Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner (“Amour Fou”) has created a striking piece of work. With its austere white background dotted with red, the film’s central greenhouse lab resembles a Japanese cherry tree orchard, the visuals echoed in a woodwind-heavy score. But a high-pitched, electrical whine aggressively suffuses the soundtrack, too — and your feelings for this film may depend on how you tolerate that. The audio design of “Little Joe” is meant to be unsettling, but it may be for naught if audiences can hardly bear to sit through it.