‘The Fox’ review: Olivia Colman lends her voice to underpowered offbeat Australian satire

Dir/scr: Dario Russo. Australia. 2026. 86mins

Aiming for idiosyncratic quirk but landing somewhere in the region of underpowered satire, The Fox relies too heavily on its high-concept, low-brow premise to power its narrative. Set in a small Australian town, it sees an unhappy man take the advice of a talking fox who promises to turn his fiancée into the perfect woman. There’s certainly potential for some dark comedy in this outlandish set-up, but writer/director Dario Russo’s decision to play it almost entirely straight dulls its claws.

 For a film about a magic hole, it doesn’t cut very deep

The feature debut from Australia’s Russo, who created irreverent Australian TV spy satire Danger 5, The Fox has its international premiere at SXSW after bowing at last year’s Adelaide Film Festival. It’s produced by Causeway Films, behind breakout Aussie horror hits The Babadook, Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, and, while it’s unlikely to have the international impact of those films, it could attract intrigued genre audiences alongside Russo’s existing fans. The presence of Olivia Colman as the voice of the titular fox should also garner interest and could help secure niche distribution, although streaming seems a more likely fit.

A succinct opening montage establishes the fact that Nick (Jai Courtney) is a solid, salt-of-the-earth everyman and his fiancée, Kori (Emily Browning), is unhappy in the relationship but doesn’t know how to break his heart. When Nick discovers that vet Kori is cheating on him with her boss Derek (Damon Herriman), he is bereft. One night, however, he encounters a talking fox (Colman), who advises him that if he wants to turn Kori into his perfect partner, loyal only to him, all he needs to do is push her into a magic hole. And wait.

That Nick doesn’t blink when the fox starts talking to him – and throughout the film other characters will also hold matter-of-fact conversations with a belligerent magpie (voiced by Sam Neill) – is an indication of the film’s dedication to its offbeat tone. Like the film’s characters, viewers are asked not to question anything – certainly not any of the film’s threadbare logic – but just to blindly go along with the increasingly off-kilter events.

Russo’s commitment to his wacky idea is admirable, and the low-key puppetry used for the fox and the magpie adds to the film’s visual charm. There are also some moments of genuine comedy, including an almost unrecognisable Miranda Otto giving an enjoyably louche performance as Nick’s mother, although she’s not utilised nearly enough.

But The Fox doesn’t go far enough, its sombre tone muting its fantastical elements, its weirdness not nearly weird enough to overcome its flaws. The idea that Kori is a woman who needs to be tamed is obviously problematic and, and despite Browning’s committed, spirited performance, it’s difficult to look past the film’s shaky gender dynamics. Of course, Kori turns up completely naked, submissive and sexually feral when she emerges from the hole – albeit for convoluted plot reasons that will become clear. And while Courtney just about nail’s Nick’s vulnerability in the face of losing the love of his life (one he didn’t bother to treat very well), the character’s motivations are not a million miles away from those of the serial killer he played in last year’s similarly troublesome Dangerous Animals, who fed women to sharks for his own twisted kicks.

Colman gives the fox a commanding, endearingly clipped British voice, and it’s up to her to connect the film’s dots, starting with an opening voiceover that discusses the challenges of the human experience and our symbiotic relationship with nature. But, beyond this – and despite the screenplay’s attempts to open its premise up into a wider, generalised comment on human insecurity – there’s not much here. “It is what it is” is the film’s repeating refrain, and that’s true of The Fox itself. For a film about a magic hole, it doesn’t cut very deep.