Low budget intimate sci-fi is a hit and miss affair especially on streaming services. Thankfully this one is a little gem.
Set some time in the immediate future, 'Only' tells the story of a young couple trying to deal with effects of a comet passing over Earth unleashing a dust cloud covering the globe that infects and ultimately kills a majority of the female population on the planet.
Don't go into this movie expecting a wider look at what happens to the world and how men suddenly cope losing nearly 50% of their families/friends and how governments plan to repopulate these are all glimpsed in news reports or fleeting dialogue between characters.
This a much more nuanced take that drops us in on day 400 of the pandemic and then flits back and forth between the past and present to fill in the blanks.
The theme here is survival and how much are we willing to give up and suffer for to protect the person we love if that life is is really no life at all and the world around you is burning to the ground.
As much as the couple (Eva and Will) try to live safely, the strain of quarantine becomes too much (sound familiar?) And Eva makes a fateful decision that causes the pair to leave the safety(!?) Of their apartment and live out their remaining days together trying to find peace amongst chaos.
Of course this doesn't go completely to plan and to be honest the intrusion of the father and son bounty hunters sub plot derails the film a little bit.
Other reviewers here are fixated on why Eva doesn't try harder to disguise herself when out in the world, mainly the decision not to cut her hair (SPOILER, she's dying so why waste her time with such a pointless task that wouldn't even alter her feminine look that much) plus the plot needs her to keep her hair, that bit of recklessness to push the story along. (again, she's dying I doubt any of us would think logically knowing that there is only a few days left).
While there is plenty of films that touch on this subject matter, The Road, Contagion, Right at your door, Light of my life. 'Only' is a worthy edition to the genre.
