I'm Your Man (2021)

I'm Your Man (2021)

starring Maren Eggert, Dan Stevens

directed by Maria Schrader

108 minutes

in German with English subtitles

Alma, a middle-aged anthropologist, takes in Tom, an android. Her boss promises her more funding for her research if she will allow the android to live with her for three weeks and provide her evaluation of it.

Alma finds Tom, the android, creepy at first. He looks totally human but some of his mannerisms are not. She grows to appreciate him on some levels but she decides that he isn't what she wants. She has second thoughts after kicking him out but doesn't soften the stance she took when she jettisoned him.

Thoughts

I like the ambiguous note on which the film ends. She is reunited with Tom but it seems unclear if they will stay together or not. 

One of the people that Alma crosses paths with during the course of the movie is Julian, a former lover. She was pregnant with their child, once upon a time, but the pregnancy was unsuccessful. He has moved on and met another woman.

Alma's 81-year-old father, her sister, and her coworkers all play parts in this story. 

Alma dances on the edge of accepting Tom but never fully does. He represents something that she doesn't want. She makes it very clear towards the end of the movie that she believes that robotic companions (at least the romantic variety) are a bad idea. Despite all this the movie ends a little ambiguously. Is the passion with which she rejects the idea of a robotic companion just a front?

I find this movie to be moving and interesting. The line that Alma draws for herself limits the possibilities. It feels a bit like a false dichotomy. I'm extremely pleased that someone spent time and money to make this movie but ultimately is feels like Alma can't see beyond the fact that Tom is a machine. There's a logic to that but it also limits the possible outcomes.

I guess what I am decrying is the fact that Alma doesn't seem to change. She stakes out her territory early in the movie. She tests the boundaries, even crosses over briefly, but in the end she seems to decide that she was right to reject Tom in the first place. On the surface that's my read of the movie.