DWFNY2026 Review: “Zoe” offers a wishful take on the modern single woman’s dilemma

Finding love is a modern conundrum for childfree women — whether they want kids or not. In addition to just seeking a safe, compatible mate, these women are under pressure from family, society, and their own sense of a “biological clock.” That’s the premise behind Zoe, a film about a woman of the same name who has become tired of her life.

Zoe, played by Emanuela Galliussi, has a token job at her father’s company. Her lifestyle is all about fun and partying, her bestie is more like a mother than anything else, and her boyfriend, she finds, is dedicated elsewhere. In one day, her life falls apart. She goes on a bender and encounters a boy who offers three wishes. Three lives in three places around the world, a glimpse of what could be. Zoe has to choose which one she wants to live.

The lives are the different types of love that Zoe has always wanted. She can be a mom in one, partnered with a superstar in another, and single, rich, and in a passionate affair in another. Each one has pieces that she loves, but also something that Zoe cannot tolerate. She quickly finds that a perfect life is a lofty goal to shoot for, and it comes with hefty sacrifices. There has to be something to shoot for that just makes her happy.

The film is a continuation of the interrogation of the “she can do it all” mentality that will not let women of Western society rest. Women are expected to work, be successful, raise a family, and land a hot, successful partner that she is madly in love with to do all of this with. What happens if the famous partner is too immature to raise a goldfish? Or the hot, passionate lover is a part of a torrid situation that could damage your wealthy, famous reputation? Zoe had to decide which of these she could live with.

But life always has a third option. It’s always nontraditional. For example, can you be a mom to a kid you didn't give birth to? Can you have a partner who is not rich and famous, but is still hot and a hard worker?

All of these questions and more are on the table, amongst the jokes, and sometimes slapstick humor in Zoe.

For more information on the film, go to DancesWithFilms.com

[embed]