‘Fingernails’: Jessie Buckley & Riz Ahmed on Getting Love Down to a Science in Futuristic Film

Jim Halterman November 2, 2023, 6:00 pm

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Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed in 'Fingernails' — Apple TV+

Looking to connect with a movie you can really fall for? If so, you may wish to swipe right on Apple TV+‘s Fingernails, a bittersweet love story that takes the question of compatibility to a futuristic next step involving weird science.

Anna and Ryan (Fargo’s Jessie Buckley and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White), together more than three years, are in love, but is their bond unbreakable? It is if you believe the findings of the controversial tech-based Love Institute, run by well-intentioned Duncan (Luke Wilson).

After a series of exercises (from recognizing each other’s natural scents to skydiving together) meant to build up their ardor, they face the ultimate wince-inducing test—extraction of a fingernail from each partner! Put into a machine, the nails reveal whether couples are 100 percent (both in love), 50 percent (only one) or 0 percent (neither).

Sound odd? Not to Buckley, who thinks the movie has a finger on the pulse of pop culture. “It’s [similar to our] world, where you use a dating site to match somebody you barely know,” she said before the strike.

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Speaking of, Anna—despite her 100 percent result with Ryan—has second thoughts, so she takes a job at the institute to delve into its methods. There, she meets diagnostician Amir (Riz Ahmed), whom, science be damned, she develops feelings for. That makes things sticky in a film that probes matters of the heart that go beyond science.

“There’s always some risk to falling in love,” Ahmed said. “True love is never calculable or quantifiable.”

Fingernails, Original Movie Premiere, Friday, November 3, Apple TV+

This is an excerpt from TV Insider’s November issue. For more in-depth, reported coverage devoted to streaming shows from the publishers of TV Guide Magazine, pick up the issue, currently on newsstands, or purchase it online here. You can also subscribe to TV Insider Magazine here now.