Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Am Mother’ on Netflix, a Thoughtful Yet Familiar Sci-fi Fable About Humans and AI

Netflix acquired the North American rights to I Am Mother after opening at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, no doubt hoping it’ll tickle the cockles of sci-fi devotees. It’s the debut feature from Australian director Grant Sputore, and has the potential to reach an audience looking for something from the streaming service that’s deeper than another Cloverfield movie, less sloppily conceived than Bird Box or less of an unintentional hootfest than Bright.

I AM MOTHER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: SETTING: I’M NOT SURE EXACTLY WHEN, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE A BLEAK NEARISH FUTURE. It’s one day after an extinction-level event, although what exactly that is, we’re not certain (yet?). In an underground “reformulation facility,” a computer assembles an intelligent robot. This is Mother (voice of Rose Byrne). She (it? Let’s go with “it”) plucks a female from an assemblage of 63,000 human embryos and, kazoop, a fully grown baby arrives 24 hours later. Mother rocks, cradles and bounces the crying baby, cycling through “Moon River” and “La Vie en Rose” on its built-in digital-media player before “Baby Mine” soothes the child.

Only 13.867 days later, Daughter (Clara Rugaard) is a teenager. Time either passes at a different rate in the bunker, or Daughter apparently will be dead in about three months. Regardless, she’s created a tight bond with Mother and her warm, soothing voice and single terrifying camera-lens eye. Mother is teaching her ballet and a classic lesson on ethics — should you sacrifice one person to save the lives of five people? Are humans culpable when meddling with fate in this manner? What if the sacrificee is a doctor, and can potentially save many other lives in the future? Hmm. Hmm, I say. Hmm.

And then, Woman (Hilary Swank) shows up. (No proper names are used in the script, to render it more like a parable.) She’s bleeding. A bullet is lodged in her abdomen. Through clenched teeth, she tells Daughter not to trust robots like Mother, which she refers to as Dozers. They hunt down and kill humans, she says. Woman doesn’t trust Mother to surgically remove the bullet, so Daughter does it, without anaesthetic. Woman begins telling Daughter what’s happening above ground, and we begin wondering if artificially intelligent robots are capable of feeling jealousy, and if so, how murderous it might be. Her story contradicts Mother, who’s been telling Daughter that the air is contaminated. Daughter faces a conundrum: who’s more capable of lying to her, a flawed human or a “perfect” machine?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Don’t let Mother/the Dozers’ superficial resemblance to the ineffable (cough) Chappie distract you from the fact that I Am Mother is clearly influenced by a bevy of sci-fi classics: Alien, The Terminator, Ex Machina and, of course, the mother of all ominous-AI movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

On second thought, Mother is more bulky RoboCop than rappin’ Chappie. And she runs like the T-1000.

Performance Worth Watching: Caught between relatively one-dimensional characters who are coldly manipulative (Mother) and frayed and desperate (Woman), Rugaard more than capably carries the emotional weight of the film. She’s the movie’s greatest asset, and proves worthy of Sputore’s rendering of Daughter as a gritty, determined Ripley Jr.

Memorable Dialogue: “It’s safer in the mines,” Woman says to Daughter. “You don’t belong here.” OR DOES SHE?

Single Best Shot: When has a conveniently located fire axe not come in handy when something in a flicker-lit bunker probably wants to murder the crap out of you?

Sex and Skin: None — the embryos are already conceived, pickled in little orbs and ready to grow by the time we drop into this story.

Our Take: Director Grant Sputore and screenwriter Michael Lloyd Green stew a strong philosophical premise into the plot goulash: who’s more trustworthy, the flawed human or the “perfect” AI robot? And in addressing that question, do we follow our instincts or intellect? These rich and heady ideas rise to the surface as we wonder whether Mother is more Mary Poppins or Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

The question of the film’s functionality remains, however. It’s suspenseful, but familiar. It’s enjoyable, but a little drawn out. It’s nicely thought-out visually, but ultimately looks budget-constrained and a little stagey. Big, dramatic moments (hello, axe!) don’t quite pack the goosebump-inspiring punch they probably should.

This is all indicative of a filmmaker with ambition, but who hasn’t quite realized his potential yet. I Am Mother isn’t perfect, and it’s not going to compete with recent sci-fi triumphs like Edge of Tomorrow, Ex Machina or Annihilation. It’s more along the lines of Another Earth or Source Code — thoughtful and watchable, but will you ever be compelled to watch it again?

Our Call: STREAM IT. There’s enough substantive brain matter and sturdy direction here to recommend it. Just don’t expect your mind to be blown.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream I Am Mother on Netflix