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What if you could take a test that tells you whether you and your partner are really in love? Fingernails is an offbeat and retro-futuristic sci-fi romance following Anna (Jessie Buckley), who works at the Love Institute. She and her husband Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) passed the love test with flying colors years ago, but now she’s not so sure.

Putting your love to the test is painful — literally. Both participants must have a fingernail removed without anesthesia, which are then placed inside a small microwave-sized machine.

How does it work? Once it dings, you receive one of three outcomes: Negative, meaning that the couple is not in love, 50%, meaning that only one is in love with the other, or positive, the best case scenario, meaning that you have both found true love. But what happens if you disagree with the results?

Why would people get tested? The objective of the test is to cut down on heartbreak and divorce, argues Duncan (an uncharacteristically stoic Luke Wilson), the founder of the Love Institute.

Love is not permanent — sometimes it grows, sometimes it dwindles. The Love Institute, founded by an idealistic Duncan , offers couples classes meant to bring them closer together before taking the test. Developing those classes alongside her mentor Amir (Riz Ahmed), Anna finds herself questioning her marriage.

The film is stubbornly self-contained. While there are no loose ends to complain about, we wish that the scope of the film was a little wider. While that might have taken away from the core of the film — namely, the existential/biological predisposition to yearn — the universe in which the technology behind cell phones doesn’t exist, but the science to determine the strength of your love does is one we want to explore.

WHERE TO WATCH- You can watch Fingernails on Apple TV+.

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