Stream It Or Skip It: ‘False Positive’ On Hulu, An IVF-Era Spin On ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Starring Ilana Glazer

The horrors of pregnancy have long held the fascination of genre lovers; from classics like Rosemary’s Baby and Eraserhead to more contemporary takes like Prevenge and Still/Born, number of ways a pregnancy or childbirth can wreak havoc on a woman’s body seem endless. In False Positive, now streaming on Hulu, a pregnancy long dreamed of turns out to be a nightmare.

FALSE POSITIVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian (Justin Theroux) have been trying to get pregnant for two years. After another negative test and some nudging from Adrian, Lucy agrees to go see a fertility specialist – perhaps the most in-demand in New York. He is Dr. John Hindle (Pierce Brosnan), also Adrian’s friend and former professor. At the Hindle Women’s Center, Dr. John is God, and the nurses don crisp pink dresses and greet everyone with a Stepford smile. It doesn’t take long for Lucy to get pregnant, but despite this happy news, she can’t help but feel something is wrong – and the men in her life simply brush her off or gaslight her.

As her pregnancy progresses, Lucy’s feelings of dread only increase; she’s convinced Dr. Hindle did something to her and that her husband might be in on it too. Consulting with friends in her “mommy group” – including Corgan (Sophia Bush) doesn’t really soothe her anxieties, and Lucy only grows more isolated and paranoid. She dreams of giving birth with a spiritual, soothing midwife and leaving Dr. Hindle and his sterile office behind. As the birth grows nearer and her grip on reality slips away, Lucy thinks everyone is out to get her. The truth is, they very well might be.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: False Positive feels like it’s trying to be a contemporary Rosemary’s Baby, though its strange sense of humor occasionally cuts through the atmosphere of dread that hangs over most of the film. I also found myself thinking of mother! and its ever-escalating hysteria. False Positive was shot by the same cinematographer as Midsommar and Hereditary (Pawel Pogorzelski), and he creates equally as unsettling an experience here.

Performance Worth Watching: Glazer is great, but Pierce Brosnan – known for his charm in so many other films – is chilling here. The casting is just such an inspired choice; who wouldn’t want the kind-eyed, gentle-voiced Brosnan as their doctor? This expectation makes it all the more disconcerting when his true nature is revealed. We may not know what he’s up to for a while, but there’s something off, something you can’t quite put your finger on, and that’s all due to Brosnan’s work here. The former Mr. Bond’s chillingly charming performance as Dr. Hindle only further cements his status as a cinema icon.

Memorable Dialogue: There are some great comedic one-liners and emotional exchanges in False Positive, but Brosnan’s delivery of “God doesn’t make babies. I do,” elicited a gasp from me. It might have been hokey in the mouth of another actor, but Brosnan sells it.

Sex and Skin: There are a few steamy encounters, usually cloaked in darkness, and a blowjob seen from a distance. Nothing too wild.

Our Take: I knew the moment Lucy and Adrian walked into the Hindle Women’s Center – a place that looks ripped from a trendy LA design magazine or The Wing – that no good could come from this. There’s something so fascinating about the stark contrast between what is apparently a soothing, inviting environment and the pitch-dark, isolating nightmare that becomes Lucy’s pregnancy. Lucy and Adrian’s apartment is equally as uninviting, and watching Lucy attempt to locate warmth in these places as life grows inside her makes her story all the more affecting. While there are moments of levity present – Glazer’s Broad City roots aren’t going anywhere – False Positive is largely a stomach-churning experience, full of gaslighting and hushed tones and dark places.

False Positive is a film that finds its strength in its visual storytelling and its unsettling score and sound design. This isn’t to say that the performances aren’t strong; without this ensemble, I’m not all that sure how well False Positive would work. (Gretchen Mol’s Nurse Dawn will haunt my dreams for months to come). But the imagery present throughout the film – shout out to cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski – is what really made the whole thing so haunting for me. There are mirrors everywhere that show us the dual natures of these people, exchanges shot at a cold distance, murky red often bleeds into dreams and into reality (sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish the two). Combined with Yair Elazar Glotman and Lucy Railton’s immersive score, False Positive is able to take us deeper into the nightmare with each revelation. 

Clocking in at some 92 minutes, False Positive provides a quick trip to the depths below before rattling us all with a cathartic ending. I found myself wishing it was longer; the ending feels rushed and unfinished, even if it is extremely cathartic. False Positive, to its credit, juggles a lot. Its messages about misogyny, gaslighting, and existing in the world as a pregnant person all leave us with a lot to think about. But with an ending that moves into a world unlike the one we’ve been a part of for most of the story, it’s difficult to emerge fully invested. There are so few flicks willing to go where False Positive goes, and it’s a bummer that it doesn’t totally stick the landing. Despite these issues, the truth is that False Positive is simply too strong a film to be ruined by its last few minutes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. False Positive is a strange little movie, smoothly skating between horror and comedy and making genuinely interesting social commentary in the process. It might not stick the landing, but the road there makes False Positive a worthy addition to any queue.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Stream False Positive on Hulu