I’m a little perplexed about this abstraction of a flick. It’s set in a grounded future where humanity has distanced itself from nature, therapy is handled by AI, and some people carry their unborn babies in external pods like oversized high school parenting projects. Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor play just such a couple… and the movie just kind of follows them around, never providing much of an overarching plot.

It’s classified as comedy, drama, and sci-fi here on LB and comedy and romance where I rented it. I think that sums up whatever this movie is… it’s kind of all those things… more or less. The comedy is understated… often centered around corporate pandering gobbledygook (and AI depicted as not-at-all-creepy eyeballs). The drama around the marriage and work. The romance is there in that the couple is already together and happily in love.

The movie isn’t in a hurry to really get to the point. It’s content to present some ideas, play around with them a bit, and move on. I like what the film says about corporations and bodily autonomy. I like its overall vision of a believable near future. I like the actors. I like the ideas. But the film is weirdly stoic and unwilling to make any statements or declarations. I guess you get out of it what you bring into it.

The finale seems rather abrupt… but the more I sit with it, the more I appreciate how understated a middle finger it is.

I kind of gently, abstractly, and intellectually like the movie and I certainly wouldn’t rate it lower but I also couldn’t rate it higher. It lacked a certain emotional connection that would earn a better score. I didn’t really connect with it…. but you might.

Score: 75