I'm Your Man

It is the first date for Alma and Tom. She tests him. Tom is intelligent, funny, perceptive, insightful, charming, good-looking, appreciative of her interests, concerned for her well-being, and even knows her favorite poem by heart. He passes everything Alma throws at him even though she is cold and skeptical. Tom appears to know her better than she knows herself. This is because Tom is an advanced robot created for with one purpose to serve, her happiness.

Tom learns from every moment with Alma and morphs into something better, yet she treats him like a machine or a piece of meat, underestimating him, leaving him to stand in the rain, and turning cliches about men on their head. Perhaps she just needs more time. Spending time in the forest together and looking at pictures of Alma as a child, Tom and Alma could dissolve and become part of something bigger.

I'm Your Man is a different kind of science fiction that, like the Tales from Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, explores the realm of our hearts rather than battlefields on distant planets. The film is complex and well crafted, exploring emotions in a variety of ways, and revolving around themes of free will, fears of being left alone, what it means to love someone, and more. Each component of film making is not neglected. There is a scene looking over the rooftops and spires of Berlin at night that is so beautiful. Maren Eggert (Alma) won a silver bear in Berlin for her performance. The film appeared at the Toronto festival as well.

Summary:

Remarkable film that with great sensitivity and intelligence and from science fiction addresses a mid-life crisis and deconstructs the love bond and romanticism, but without giving it up.

Review

Alma is an anthropologist who works in a Berlin museum doing research on cuneiform writing. To obtain funds, she agrees to participate in a scientific test where she must live for three weeks with an android programmed to satisfy all her wishes.

The film by Maria Schrader (director of the Unorthodox miniseries and the film Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) manages with this story to combine and reflect on various issues without remaining a mere anecdote.

First of all, the German title, Ich bin dein Mensch, is significant. It is not "dein Mann" (man in the sense of male human) but "dein Mensch", which in German means man, but as a human being in general. And this distinction is relevant for everything that the film addresses. And the "Ich bin" (I am) places the title in the first person of the humanoid.

Of course, the film reflects and acutely on the implications of relating physically and emotionally with a humanoid and algorithms-base affinity and it does so many times in the voice of Alma (an extraordinary Maren Eggert), especially when she speaks with the humanoid Tom (Dan Stevens, beautiful, perfect and measured and speaking in German). And the story is also placed on Tom's side.

But co-writer Maria Schrader goes beyond the plots of the science fiction story and frames it in the midlife crisis that it triggers in Alma, a woman who seems to put all her energy into her profession, who is not recovered from her injuries and that he is capable of a certain aggressive cynicism. And she adds a lucid study on power relations and alterity in love ties, because What does it mean to relate to someone whose main objective is to please us? What kind of link can be established under this premise? Is there an other? Can love and happiness prosper?

The film knows how to raise its questions not only with the spoken word and of course it outlines some answers. But his main merit lies in the realm of the ineffable (there is a remarkable scene in a forest in this sense), in the climates (which include an effective use of comedy) that it knows how to create with a sensitivity and delicacy that at times appear to the abyss and in others to hope, in this story that deconstructs the love bond and romanticism without giving it up.

Maren Eggert & Dan Stevens both shine in this fantastic movie. I first noticed when Dan Stevens first appeared in Downton Abbey, he was already quite outstanding, and I've also predicted that he'd have a bright acting career. My guess then has been proved totally correct. But I didn't know Mr. Stevens is a language genius. His linguistic talent has amazed me when he played roles in the American movies already, now, he speaks fluent German language too. What a genius level actor!

This movie is so unique, but the thing that really makes feel good is it's such a CLEAN movie! It also makes you feel good. I highly recommend it.

'I'm your man' is funny, it's charming, it's entertaining but also insigthful when it needs to be, it's exactly what I wanted from the film's description.

In order to obtain research funds for her anthropology studies, Alma reluctantly accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with Tom, a humanoid robot created to make her happy.

Tom meets Alma at "a bar" which we quickly learn is an event designed to capture romantic feelings, a façade to initially test the A. I. flirting mecanisms and interactions with humans, the whole ordeal is a failure and this is just the beginning of Tom's rocky relationship with an unenthusiastic Alma.

Although Tom is design to be her dream guy, the "socially awkward" robot interactions of the first half of the film are some of the most funny and meaningful parts of the film. Tom is full of corny compliments, he's protective, he plans her ideal date nights, he does all her household chores, he is perfect... he's boring. But we quickly learn Tom's system is designed to learn from her responses and will truly become her ideal match... or will he?

The film definitely touches many themes we have seen explored before, but it displays their elements very cleverly even mixing some moments of tragedy but with a more optimistic approach to story than I initially expected from the film. 'I'm your man' escapes the cliché of technology turning against humanity and has more of an emotional approach to the characters bond, as the main conflict doesn't necessarily lies on Alma's 'abusing' the system with this relationship which leads to their downfall but more on her current inability to open up- overcoming her history and a new chance to accept that type of interaction into her life (again), with someone who may not entirely comprehend her emotional baggage at first... but he may be able to if given the chance.

Maybe the parts related to Alma's past and current job situation wasn't was interesting to me as the main relationship was, but the themes of her scientific work definitely added a layer of depth to her relationship with Tom. The film has the ending everyone expects though... it is the type of thing we have seen before, but the last scene is quite impactful.

Maren Eggert and Dan Stevens are great leads for this film, they have a lot of chemistry and even the akwardness of their interactions is insanely entertaining. I didn't even know I liked Dan Stevens until I saw him speaking german and acting robotic.

'I'm your man' is a good choice if you are looking for a fun rom-com with a bit more phylosophical depth to its plot.

I'm Your Man: Another film about A. I., consciousness, love and relationships. Basically a romantic drama. Alma (Maren Eggert) is an archaeologist who agrees to beta test an android, Tom (Dan Stevens) who is programmed to be the perfect fit for her emotionally and intellectually. After a couple of teething problems she takes him home but grates at his suggestions. An odd coupe indeed in spite of supposedly being the perfect match. How things between them develop is moulded by Alma's personal and professional life. Her father is ageing and won't admit that he can't cope, Alma grieves over a miscarriage she suffered during a past relationship and her former partner is very much around. Even Alma's childhood is relevant to the narrative. Quite funny but also serious at times in how it deals with people being treated as objects and denied agency. In some ways this is a reverse Stepford Wives. Directed/Co-written by Maria Schrader. 8/10.