Evolution (2015 film)

Plot

Nicolas is a sickly young boy living by the sea with his mother. One day while swimming in the sea he thinks he sees the body of a dead boy covered by a starfish. He tells his mother, who goes diving and brings him back the starfish telling him there is no body there.

Later, at night, his mother brings back the body and the other mothers gather around it.

The following day Nicolas plays with his starfish. After another boy mocks him for being afraid of it he grows angry and attacks the boy, later hacking off one of the arms of the starfish. After his outburst his mother takes him to a hospital for observation. At the hospital Nicolas has an injection just above his stomach and finds himself in a ward with other boys who have been similarly operated on.

Once he has been released Nicolas begins to suspect his mother and the nurses of having lied to him. He and his friend, Victor, sneak out in the middle of the night to observe what the mothers are doing and sees them lying together completely nude and writhing around in the mud. At home, he sneaks a peek at his mother, showering off the mud, and observes that she has what appears to be suckers on her back.

Back at the hospital Nicolas is given an ultrasound where, to his mother's joy, they hear the heart beat of a foetus.

Victor is operated on and a creature is taken out of his stomach and put in a jar. The nurses tell Nicolas and the other boys that Victor has recovered and give them a conch shell on behalf of Victor. Nicolas's mother visits him and he accuses her of not being his mother. One of the other boys observes that his mother is not really his mother either.

At night the nurses watch videos of caesarean sections being performed.

Nicolas develops a friendship with one of the nurses, Stella, who sneaks him crayons and draws with him. One night she takes him out to the water and shows him the suckers on her back, allowing him to touch them before taking him into the water. Once inside the water she holds him down until he drowns, then revives him using CPR. Nicholas awakens once more and goes back to the hospital where he sees one of the boys floating in a tank.

After a final surgery Nicolas awakens in the tank himself. He is restrained and sees what appears to be a baby inside the tank with him.

Nicolas again finds himself by the sea with Stella. They again enter the water only this time they kiss as she swims with him, allowing him to breathe underwater. She finishes by pushing him to the surface. The two end up on a small boat travelling away from the island. After making sure Nicolas has a drink of water Stella slips back into the water, presumably to go back to the island. Nicolas stays on the boat and by nightfall he finds himself approaching the harbour of a major city.

Cast

Critical response

Evolution received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 80%, based on thirty reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 77, based on nineteen reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".