An android lives in a flat next to what appears to be a particularly active call-girl. He receives a mail delivery which lets him know that his service life is now over, and should report for termination the next day. This same day the girl next door decides to introduce herself, and invites him round later so they can share his last night with her.
The use of special effects within this film is really well done – not only technically, but also in how they are used. Although there is an element of showing them off of course, they are generally done in service of the characters and there isn't really anything shown which doesn't sit in the service of establishing the world or characters. In doing so we see our main character is an android – not only because of the robotic hands and visible technology, but also because he makes a whirring noise whenever he moves, but because he is also played like a silent version of Data from Star Trek TNG. The plot sees him approached by the call girl on his last functional day, only to get drawn into a violent confrontation with a cop, where the girl kills the cop, reveals herself as a robot, and the film ends with the suggestion that they are going on the run together.
The film clearly has ideas which are familiar from other sci-fi's – themes which we have seen explored and developed with much more detail than we do here. This film actually does very little and too much of it is spent in silent non-action, as if the weight of the setting and ideas will be enough to carry it. In doing so I found it to feel a little too pleased with itself and its technology, as if somehow just being in this sort of universe would be enough, and that the film didn't really have to deliver more than that. Even the twists at the end are presented in a dry, detached air that mostly robs them of impact. Of course this isn't helped by the film not doing much with ending either – so the viewer really has little interest in the characters or the world in which they exist. I guess the ending suggests there is another story to be told after this one, but on the basis of this I doubt anyone would be too inspired to see it.
It is not without its strengths, but it is presented with a cold detachment which it does nothing with apart from create, and it produces a dramatic finish that asks us to care about characters we have to reason to care for, and it presents it in the same, disinterested air that makes it hard for the viewer to feel differently.
The use of special effects within this film is really well done – not only technically, but also in how they are used. Although there is an element of showing them off of course, they are generally done in service of the characters and there isn't really anything shown which doesn't sit in the service of establishing the world or characters. In doing so we see our main character is an android – not only because of the robotic hands and visible technology, but also because he makes a whirring noise whenever he moves, but because he is also played like a silent version of Data from Star Trek TNG. The plot sees him approached by the call girl on his last functional day, only to get drawn into a violent confrontation with a cop, where the girl kills the cop, reveals herself as a robot, and the film ends with the suggestion that they are going on the run together.
The film clearly has ideas which are familiar from other sci-fi's – themes which we have seen explored and developed with much more detail than we do here. This film actually does very little and too much of it is spent in silent non-action, as if the weight of the setting and ideas will be enough to carry it. In doing so I found it to feel a little too pleased with itself and its technology, as if somehow just being in this sort of universe would be enough, and that the film didn't really have to deliver more than that. Even the twists at the end are presented in a dry, detached air that mostly robs them of impact. Of course this isn't helped by the film not doing much with ending either – so the viewer really has little interest in the characters or the world in which they exist. I guess the ending suggests there is another story to be told after this one, but on the basis of this I doubt anyone would be too inspired to see it.
It is not without its strengths, but it is presented with a cold detachment which it does nothing with apart from create, and it produces a dramatic finish that asks us to care about characters we have to reason to care for, and it presents it in the same, disinterested air that makes it hard for the viewer to feel differently.
