An archaeologist reluctantly agrees to test-run a humanoid love robot programmed to fulfil her desires in this poignant comedy starring Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens.
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A comedy that finds poetry in unexpected places… I’m Your Man asks if we really want our fantasies to come true, and what happens when we fall in love.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2021
I'm Your Man 2021
Ich bin dein Mensch
Nov 17 | | ||
Nov 20 | |
In a deal to secure research funds, archaeologist Alma (Maren Eggert) reluctantly agrees to test-run humanoid love robot Tom (Dan Stevens), who has been tailored to her particular taste. The arrangements are made: Tom, who is still in development, will live with Alma for three weeks, during which she is tasked with taking him for a spin as her romantic partner. Alma, ever the cynic, is not enthused, but grins and bears the experiment for the sake of her studies. What ensues is a funny, poignant exploration of compatibility, trust and desire.
It’s a classic romance premise of opposites – Alma has spent her life studying antiquities and here she is dating a robot – yet the film goes further, questioning the nature of traditional relationships, highlighting how those who fail to partner up by a certain age are often cast aside.
Written and directed by Maria Schrader, who most recently directed Netflix miniseries Unorthodox, the film tactfully juggles its romantic through-line with a multitude of subplots: Alma’s strained relationship with her colleague-and-ex, her caretaking responsibilities for her ailing father struggling with late-stage dementia and her ground-breaking research into the Sumerian cuneiform writing system.
The film is never overly futuristic, the existence of a humanoid love robot and a handful of holograms the only real difference from our present day. Maren Eggert (Tatort) is riveting as the highly-strung Alma and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) is brilliant as perfection-in-beta-mode Tom, the chemistry between the two particularly striking in the film’s final sequence. — Amanda Jane Robinson