Review of I Am Mother (2019) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is a slightly chilly feeling sci-fi film, a 'what if?' AI related/perhaps somewhat dystopian type watch, although I'm not sure I'd say everything is clearly especially bad at first but what with the looming sounding music/muzack in the background present from the start, there's an unshakable sense of tension provided. The ethics of the future having more emphasis on AI devices and technology in general to, at the very least, help bring up the younger generation, is certainly an interesting subject, one that has been covered by numerous other films. I suppose the core subjects/themes about how much we should trust AI is a little cliched but I still found it an intriguing watch and I wouldn't specifically class myself as a 'full blown' sci-fi fan, mainly as I prefer to watch films with a human element. For the most part, the only sci-fi films I particularly like are those that feature human characters (characters that are humans, not just beings acted by humans) and this film has quite a strong human element to it, which did appeal.

I thought Hilary Swank gave a good performance, seeming really quite convincing as her character (only known as 'woman'), with quite pained facial expressions showing her emotions (concern/sadness etc.) very clearly. The rest of the cast do well in their roles too and I can't deny that I felt it was a bit chilling how Mothers voice (supplied by Rose Byrne) was so seemingly un-human, fake and yet the isolated human learns to bond with it.

I can't say much more for fear of providing spoilers but I felt it was a reasonably spooky/chilly watch - not a horror film but a fairly thought provoking, decent sci-fi drama type film. It is pretty slow paced but I found it a fairly engrossing watch regardless and I'd recommend it to others.