Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Swan Song’ on Apple TV+, a Moody Drama in Which Mahershala Ali and Mahershala Ali Play a Man and His Replacement Clone

Apple TV+ exclusive Swan Song gives Mahershala Ali a golden thespian opportunity: Playing two versions of the same character. You know, like Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers, Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap or Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Impact AND Maximum Risk AND Replicant. Except not quite, because Ali isn’t playing twins, but rather, one legit human and his clone, in a near-future sci-fi story about a dying man who’s contemplating leaving his family a rather unusual parting gift.

SWAN SONG: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s a time of self-driving cars and contact lenses with heads-up displays, but science has yet to find a cure for death. Get with it, science! Cameron Turner (Ali) is a sweet guy, a family man with an equally sweet wife, Poppy (Naomie Harris), and adorable young son, Cory (Dax Rey). He’s an artist by trade – he designs corporate logos and such, which isn’t exactly being Banksy, but it still scratches some creative itches, I’m sure. It’s not the kind of life he’s ready to leave behind yet, especially if it’s forever.

See, Cameron has been suffering these seizures. Nobody knows about them except Cameron, his physician and Dr. Scott (Glenn Close), head of Arra Labs. Why does Dr. Scott know about them, but, rather improbably, not his wife? We’ll get to that, but first, here’s a flashback or two in which Cameron meets Poppy on a commuter train, when he accidentally eats part of her chocolate bar. She gave him her number, and he obviously called it. The rest is history, with the joys and tragedies all of us navigate, most notably, when Poppy’s brother, her fraternal twin, died suddenly. She retreated within herself for months to grieve, leaving Cameron to bear the bulk of the weight of bringing up little Cory. She had pretty much just emerged from her depression when Cameron began hitting the floor; but she has yet to see it happen, maybe lucky for her, but definitely lucky for Cameron, because he’s got plans.

Namely, Dr. Scott. Arra Labs is a remote facility deep in the woods where one can have oneself “regenerated” from the DNA up. Or “cloned,” if you’re into the whole brevity thing. The procedure may come in handy if you’re like Cameron, who has a terminal illness and doesn’t want to leave his family behind to fend for themselves. Especially since Poppy has experienced enough loss lately, and, by the way, is newly pregnant. The Turner family needs its father. It’ll have to be a new one, although it’ll be so much like the old one, nobody will notice.

Cameron ventures to Arra and there’s Jack, who looks and sounds exactly like him, and has all the same memories. Jack awakens and he needs a week or so to orient himself to the fact that he’s a clone, and will replace Cameron. Jack is only the third such clone that Dr. Scott will put into the world surreptitiously. One of the others is a replica of Kate (an uncharacteristically subdued Awkwafina) and Cameron not only gets to A/B them for authenticity, he and Kate form a two-human support group, to be friends during the sadly all-too-limited time they have left in this mortal coil. Once Jack acclimates, Arra will zap the memory of his clone-dom from his brain, and life will continue through Christmases and births and graduations and weddings and funerals, with the rest of the world blissfully unaware that the Cameron that lives on is a pod person instead of a person who was a clump of cells and then an embryo and then a fetus and then a baby and then a child and then a teen and then an adult and then a senior and then dust. What could possibly go wrong?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Swan Song has the understated, contemplative sci-fi of stuff like Her, Ex Machina, Morgan and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Additionally, the Awkwafina quotient brings to mind The Farewell, another movie – a triumphant one, I might add – about keeping a very big secret.

Performance Worth Watching: Playing two versions of the same character often bears the stink of stunt performance, but Mahershala Ali is good here. (Mahershala Ali is always good.) He maintains a calm, measured and contemplative tone, minimizing histrionics and leaving room for the screenplay’s lightly tantalizing ambiguities.

Memorable Dialogue: Dr. Scott employs a wee bit of understatement when Cameron gets his first glimpse of his clone: “You wanna go say hi?”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: I’ll tell you what possibly could go wrong: Only everything. But also possibly nothing. That’s the strength of Swan Song, which keeps us guessing as to what kind of movie will it be. A calm, measured drama? A drawn-out weepie? A poignant sci-fi fable? A thriller with a wild twist? No spoilers, but tonally, the film points to a combination of the first two, with the occasional tenebrous flourish suggesting the latter two. Ali and director Benjamin Cleary establish and nurture a contemplative air to this story, which explores primarily internal conflicts in its protagonist. Yet far too often, I’ve seen films stop on dimes and Jekyll-and-Hyde themselves into nonsense, so what if Cameron’s clone ends up being a serial killer, because the repressed, subconscious half of Cameron has secretly been murdering people for years? Crazier things have happened.

But seriously. I will say the film is smarter than that, although it raises questions about what might happen once Cameron hands over the care of his most precious family to someone else, even if that someone is exactly him, albeit not with his exact consciousness. He has concerns, understandably so; put yourself in his shoes and ponder the possibility, then consider how you’d feel if you had a real pillow-soaker of a dream about your clone having a violent outburst. The movie’s insular, and empathetic, and about trust, and letting go, and desiring normalcy and stability for those most important to you, but also, maybe it’s about making a big decision that backfires and ends up putting your wife and child in terrible danger. I’ll never tell.

The film isn’t without conceptual problems – a story about such a fragile secret inevitably hinges on elements that stretch narrative credibility. To liven the somber tone and enhance the tension, Cleary shoehorns in suspenseful sequences, including one featuring an It’s Only A Dog moment, a moment in which Cameron and Jack are surely thankful that dogs in the future have yet to develop the capacity to speak English. Cleary also edits right past one of the most interesting parts of the story, possibly because it’s too difficult to write, and he’s just not up for it. It’s biggest credibility-stretcher is the fact that Poppy isn’t aware that her husband occasionally, randomly falls down and thrashes violently; that’s a tough one to keep under your hat. But despite its issues, Swan Song is a pretty good wallow, a somber and melancholic story with gentle philosophical provocations, a lovely and clean visual palette and a few smart surprises.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Swan Song isn’t a game-changer, but it’s a detailed, emotionally viable character-driven film with plenty of upside.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.

Stream Swan Song on Apple TV+