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In a tender moment in Australian director Grant Sputore's futuristic play I Am Mother, a protagonist expresses a nostalgic badysis of his personality and parenting abilities.
"I'm governed by different parameters," she admits, but adds, as if she wanted to make the following point not only to her audience, but to herself: "I'm a good mother."
If it sounds a little different from the type of comment you might expect from your own mother, it's for a good reason: this one is a robot. The person with whom she converses is a teenage girl known only under the name of daughter (Clara Rugaard) who mother (the voice of Rose Byrne) has raised since her birth – or since she's chosen her in a test tube, then found the body of his daughter's baby in a vat of liquid. . The creation of human beings, in this Brave New World, is a process of adding water – like a big two-minute noodle.
In an elegant introductory montage, Sputore quickly details the child's years of solitary training inside an isolated, space-ship-like bunker. We see Mother hugging her, rocking her, teaching her to read. In spite of the director's somewhat ironic approach, it is difficult not to consider an inherent cynicism at stake; to change a human mother for a robot changes everything.
The introductory text informs us that the story takes place in a "restocking facility" after "extinction" – in other words, another pink image of what is reserved to humanity. End-of-the-world visions have long been a magnet for audiences, but in the current climate change crisis, this kind of apocalyptic context is even more disturbing and provokes existential angst. people ruined everything.
Sputore's approach in this Australia / US co-production is nothing less than contained, both spatially and stylistically. From the beginning of the play, it is obvious that the filmmaker will be reluctant or even reluctant to move away from the steel decor of the spaceship. Which raises the question: how is the outside world?
On this subject, the girl is naturally curious. I am Mother's reminiscent of the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane, another dark and tightly controlled room piece featuring a character – the robot here below – and a paranoid and disconcerting John for the landscape at Cloverfield. – the public and the protagonist are wary. Goodman blowing and blowing, discussing the apocalypse, is he crazy? Does the mother tell the truth when she tells the girl the state of the universe?
In both cases, a question mark is placed on the nature of reality. The event that pushes I Am Mother's protagonist to wonder if her entire life is a complex exercise in computerized gas lighting is the arrival, at about 25 minutes, of a bloodied stranger portrayed as a woman (Hilary Swank, as always). which forces her to struggle with difficult concepts.
Mother, expressed by Rose Byrne. Photography: Ian Routledge
At this point, the film begins the slow task of unveiling its secrets. Think of it as an episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Naturally, this involves thinking about the object and motivation of the robot, as in Ex Machina writer-director Alex Garland – another drama contained in the theme of artificial intelligence and focused on three main actors.
I am a mother. My mother's influences include obvious links to the work of James Cameron and Ridley Scott. One of the key themes in writer Michael Lloyd Green's scenario, which starts strong but ends a bit flat, is the growing confidence we place in artificial intelligence – a timely question in the Siri era, Alexa, Bixby and Cortana.
Movies such as I am a mother have dangerous structures, in that they accumulate at the risk of a potentially unsatisfactory resolution. Until the final act, it is unclear whether, by narrowing the scope of history, filmmakers have locked themselves in a corner or played their hand intelligently.
Here, it's more the first than the last one. I'm a mother does not have the psychological weight of Ex Machina or 10 Cloverfield Lane, with an unexpected finale that makes losing attention to her most interesting psychological questions. Yet, it is not devoid of interest or impact. In its management of family dynamics, the film is, as Mother would say, governed by different parameters. The way it subverts (at least) the traditional concepts around a parent / child relationship gives it a unique character and value.
• I Am Mother is screened at the Sydney Film Festival and on Netflix
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