While the Premise is Chilling, 'Humane' Lacks the Tension to Match it [Review]

​I hate to shock you with this statement, but we live in a fucked-up world. One where fortune often favors the ruthless over the decent. Where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Where politicians sell the soul of their country only to turn around and tell us the consequences are our fault. In Caitlin Cronenberg’s—yes, daughter of that Cronenberg—debut feature, Humane, the filmmaker paints a picture of a future that’s chilling in its possibility yet underwhelming in its execution.
 
Set in a time that could very well be next year, the world faces an environmental disaster in which food and water have become scarce thanks to Global Warming. Governments around the world have declared it a “human crisis”, blamed on overpopulation instead of politicians taking paychecks to look the other way for decades. International borders have been closed, and every nation has committed to a population reduction of twenty percent. To achieve this goal, the “Department of Citizen Strategy”, aka D.O.C.S., has been created, a government organization that makes house calls to euthanize volunteers, described as “enlisting”. Ex-reporter and millionaire Charles York (Peter Gallagher) has gathered his four adult children at his McMansion to inform them that he and his lover, Dawn (Uni Park) have decided to enlist that very night. But when Dawn bails and D.O.C.S. arrives, they demand a second body, leaving it up to Charles’ kids to decide who among them will be sacrificed.
 
With her first feature, Caitlin Cronenberg proves adept at world-building, crafting a dystopian future that feels like its racing towards us. She and writer Michael Sparaga imagine a time in which water is delivered to needy communities who no longer have access to it. The sun’s UV rays have become so dangerous that most walk around with umbrellas in broad daylight and cover windows in protective sheets. Surprising no one, politicians have taken zero responsibility. People like Charles’ dipshit son, Jared (played to slimy perfection by Jay Baruchel), a political commentator, blame the “Asian Collapse”, racist rhetoric referring to overpopulation in Asian countries, reminiscent of when Trump blamed China for Covid. Cronenberg drops all this information on the audience with a slight Verhoeven-ian humor, inserting dark satire into the situation, such as “enlisters of the week” segments on news channels. All of it chilling. All of it seeming like something we could see in our lifetime.

Rather than focus on the desperate families who need the money paid by D.O.C.S. to the loved ones of those who enlist, Humane instead turns the tables on the privileged. As Jared so proudly proclaims, the standard rules do not apply to them, so imagine his dismay when that proves wrong. Alongside this sniveling jerk, we meet half-brother/musician, Noah (Sebastian Chacon), wannabe actress, Ashley (Alanna Bale) and board member of a pharmaceutical company, Rachel (Emily Hampshire). Each of them has grown up with money, free from the issues that plague the under-privileged. Through their family raised by silver spoon, Cronenberg and Sparaga take a scythe to the one percent, slicing and dicing with sharp commentary on the selfishness of the wealthy, but at a detriment to the film overall. These characters are all terrible people in one way or another, with few redeeming qualities or engaging personalities that would at least make them enjoyable to watch. When D.O.C.S. agent Bob (played with a gleeful menace by Enrico Colantoni) announces one of them must die, we as the audience can’t help but mutter “good riddance”. The clever commentary established in the first act all but vanishes as the four squabble over who should die. Sparaga’s script is neither entertaining enough nor Cronenberg’s direction engrossing enough to retain audience attention. Throughout it all, I couldn’t help but imagine how much more effectively this premise could play out from the perspective of the less fortunate.
 
Partway through, Rachel declares “fuck fair”, and I’d say that’s an apt summation of the film’s message. Bad people get away with bad things. Good people suffer. Round and round we go, trapped in a never-ending cycle where humanity’s worst rise to the top and doom the rest of us with their greed. The intent with Humane comes off as wanting to frustrate the audience with that reality, and in that, I can at least say it succeeds. Provocative as the premise can be at times, an utter lack of tension and dull characters detract from the urgency of the premise. It moves with the speed of a sloth towards the cutthroat violence it promises, forcing the audience to wait much too long for an underwhelming final act. Worse still, it attempts to build redemptive arcs for these characters who are, at their very core, awful people, rather than indulging in who—and what—they really are. That last bit especially undermines Cronenberg’s critique of the wealthy, landing us somewhere that says sure, they’re bad, but the government’s worse. No part of me believes that’s the intention, but ultimately, that’s where Humane takes us.
 
On a technical level, Humane is a well-made film. Cronenberg demonstrates skill as a director in pulling good performances from her cast, and her background as a still photographer shows itself through rich, textured lighting. Yet the filmmaker’s struggle to craft suspense or express her own unique voice behind the camera throws cold water on the burning commentary. There's a good film somewhere inside of Humane, one that pits greed against love to examine just how far the selfishness of humans will go. But we already know the answer to that, and unfortunately, Cronenberg's debut doesn't give the audience much to chew on besides the obvious. 

Humane arrives in select theaters April 26th from IFC Films. 

By Matt Konopka