Just not fun

Rating: 6/10 (13 August 2015)

This film is smart and good-looking, clean and crisp. But, it hasn't stayed with me.
THE GOOD:

Intelligent writing. I liked the painting metaphor, for example. I thought it was a nice way to encapsulate the idea of determinism vs. free will (though I may be misinterpreting). The story seems simple at first, but is actually quite layered.

-- Nice to see a film about AI that isn't about robots killing humans (well, isn't entirely about that, anyway...)
-- Has an eerie quality that I enjoyed.
-- Nicely minimalistic. I especially liked the opening sequence -- very clean exposition. There's no padding here. But that might work to its disadvantage in the end...
THE BAD:
-- I didn't connect with any of the characters. While they seemed realistic in a way, they were really pretty one dimensional (and I'm not talking about the robot here). I think that's the danger of minimalism -- the characters can become slaves to the story.
Nathan is manipulative and creepy, but not evil enough to inspire hatred. And Caleb came across as a chump. So when he did something brave, I was too busy feeling embarrassed for him to revel in his heroic qualities. And I wanted a hero! But maybe this wasn't that kind of film.
-- The idea that any artificial 'female' is automatically a sex toy feels not-so-fresh. For me, using that as a critical plot twist really blunted the impact of the whole movie. It may make sense to 'go there', but the movie could have been far more interesting if they'd found a new angle.
In the end, the film was perhaps just too subtle for my tastes, and I was kind of bored. But I didn't fall asleep. For me, that's saying something.