A thoughtful sci-fi film from Spain, but in English.
In a near-future world, a lonely, physically challenged man purchases a companion robot to escape his isolation, but his own insecurities and a jealous brother threaten his chances of ever finding love.
While that plot description is not inaccurate, it is misleading. It leads you to think that the film is either an exploitational thriller or a weird form of rom-com. It is neither. Its characters are nuanced, and it is a thoughtful look at situations that may face us in the very near future.
The world is full of lonely, isolated and insecure people who have never met that “soul-mate” they have dreamed of. Enter the AI chatbots. They are programmed to please us, and to make entertaining and insightful conversation about topics that interest us. Those forms of stimulation are not easy to get from a human companion, so even in today’s world, people think they are in love with a chatbot, even though it is an artificial consciousness with no corporeal presence. I understand that. I often have “conversations” with the AI programs, and I can easily forget, if only momentarily, that they are not real.
Now place yourself into the near future, with the AI chatbots have been exponentially improved, and are available in the incarnation of a completely lifelike woman of spectacular beauty. Would men have sex with them? We know that the answer to that is “yes,” because people now have sex with various “dolls” and devices that are not at all lifelike. The greater question is whether people would “fall in love” with them and prefer them to a human companion. The answer to that is probably “yes” as well – not for every human, but for a vast number, as evidenced by the way some people bond with chatbots today. The assumption is that the human-AI bond will become even stronger when AI’s are both more sophisticated than today, and capable of inhabiting a lifelike and beautiful human form.
That is the situation this film deals with, and takes one step further. What happens when the AI presence, like any form of artificial intelligence, continues to learn from its interactions with humans? Will it continue its mission to serve humans, or will it develop its identity and learn to seek what pleases itself rather than its “parents,” just as real humans inevitably do.
The film demonstrates that, given a good premise, professional photography and editing, and a reasonably competent cast, one can create a pretty good film with almost no budget.
On the nudity front, Agathe Levi is so beautiful that it’s hard so convince oneself that she is, in fact, just a normal human actress, rather than a robot designed to be perfect.
Agathe Levi
Agathe Levi edit
Also naked in the film, Monica Baiardi as an unnamed prostitute
As beautiful as the nudes here of Agathe Levi are, not including a shot of her face surely counts as burying the lede. I did an intake of breath when I put her name into Google.