Little Shop of Joe

 Little Joe (2019) has been on our queue for a while, possibly since last Halloween. We saw previews for it before a lot of scary movies, but it never looked quite right for us. Then I decided I wanted to see it because Ben Whishaw is in it. I've seen movies for worse reasons.

Little Joe stars Emily Beecham, as a plant scientist trying to develop house plants in the near future. While her company rivals are trying to create a hardy plant that will survive its owner's neglect, Beecham has a different take. Her plant takes a lot of caring, but gives the owner a sense of peace and love. The plant has weird red flowers, and seems to require red light. She names it after her son, Joe, and gives him a pre-production plant. 

Strange things start happening around the flower. First a fellow scientist's dog disappears. Ben Whishaw, a plant technician, looks in the little Joe greenhouse, and is hit by a blast of pollen. The dog that comes back doesn't recognize his owner, Kerry Fox. But she has had mental issues, so this may just be something like that. 

Whishaw, on the other hand, is still sucking up to Beecham as his boss, but now is also trying to get romantic. Beecham is a bit stand-offish anyway - married to her job, oblivious to emotions - so she doesn't take to this. She is also having a little trouble her son. He is quiet and well-behaved, but knows that she isn't giving him the attention he needs. Then he gets hit by the plant. 

He gets a cute girlfriend and sneaks her into the greenhouse. Now they are both dosed with pollen. When Beecham confronts him, he just tells her he's a teenager now. It's natural for him to pull away. And he's thinking he should go stay with his father in Scotland, and maybe take him a plant.

So, a bit of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a bit of Little Shop of Horrors/Day of the Triffids. Directed by Jennifer Hausner, this has a very stylish look, with the high-tech greenhouses, red flowers, corporate meeting rooms, etc. There's a nice look at high-tech office politics, and some nonsense about the plant spreading pollen because it was rendered sterile - it's trying to reproduce by taking over human minds? The main theme is "If everyone's mind is taken over, could you tell?" and "If people are mind-controlled to be happy, is that so bad?" 

But we didn't really think it all came together. The themes aren't really new, and aren't done that well. It looks good, but not strikingly so. Also, all the beta testers reported that their family members were acting weirdly - didn't anyone check that? The best part was Joe and his girlfriend confessing that Beecham that yes, the pollen had taken over their brains, but it was happy and peaceful, like being dead. Then they burst out laughing, and tell her they're joking. 

So it's a low-key, artsy horror movie, on not-that-new themes, done well but not outstanding. It wasn't bad, but we could have skipped it, Ben Whishaw and all.