Vesper has to do more than she’s told she can for her and her father’s sake. And in “Vesper,” co-writer/co-director duo Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper (“Vanishing Waves”) convincingly dramatize a turning point in their solitary heroine’s life—the moment when Vesper learns that the ground beneath her feet will probably never stop shifting.
Unlike a lot of canned coming-of-age stories, “Vesper” focuses more on credible growing pains than token empowerment and trite reassurances. “Vesper” is the rare science-fiction movie that’s most convincing when its tone and narrative are more surreal than reassuring and borderline absurd instead of cathartic. It’s also gorgeous and dream-like thanks to its surreal production design and storyboard-perfect mise en scene. These immediately attractive qualities make some contrived plot twists and baldly stated dialogue seem far less important than the movie’s total vision of adolescence in the shadow of environmental crisis.
In a few early scenes, Buozyte and Samper quickly establish the chilliness of Vesper’s hierarchy-bound world. She soon discovers that her bed-ridden father Darius (Richard Brake) needs more electrical power to keep him alive. So Vesper reaches out to Jonas (Eddie Marsan), the ruthless leader of a cult-like compound who trades blood and sex for essential resources like food, shelter, and power. Unfortunately, the terms of Jonas’ aide are too steep, and Vesper knows it: she warns him that she doesn’t want to become a “breeder,” like some of the other women in his group. He scoffs, but doesn’t correct her.
Jonas cautions Vesper that she shouldn’t get her hopes up, as far as improving her uneasy station in life. “You think you’re better than everyone else,” he tells her. Unfortunately, Jonas isn’t the only one who reminds Vesper that she’s living in an unwelcoming world, and therefore must lower her expectations. “You don’t know the cost of dreams,” says Darius, speaking to Vesper through a drone-like robot that accompanies Vesper on her day-to-day tasks.
The threatening implications of these warnings are both clear and sensible, though both men obviously want to protect Vesper for different reasons. Vesper doesn’t trust Jonas, but you can see why she might be tempted.