From director Maria Schrader comes the German film Ich Bin Dein Mensch – or, I’m Your Man in English. It’s easily one of the best AI-centered movies of the last decade, on par with Westworld and Ex Machina in terms of how realistically it depicts the future of robotics. The twist is… it’s a rom-com. I’ll keep the review brief and spoiler-free, but suffice to say, the movie is a sheer delight.
The premise is that a single researcher, Alma, is paired stuck with a perfectly-designed soulmate robot named Tom. Her task is to evaluate how effective a robot is as a life partner. Tom, played fantastically by Dan Stevens, is utterly endearing as the seemingly clueless but chivalrous bot, and the ensuing ‘romance’ is both laugh-out-loud hilarious and genuinely heartwarming. It’s easily one of the best, most original movies of the year, and I cannot recommend it enough.
