Bicentennial Man

The film has not gotten great reviews, I think because it's a film which leans very far towards the sentimental side. It is, however, relatively faithful to the novella, at least in spirit, and I actually thought it was a very good movie.

In the year 2005, the Martin family purchases a robot, who is named Andrew (Williams, in an impressive robot suit). Although the older daughter of the family hates him, the younger daughter (Hallie Kate Eisenberg - the girl from the Pepsi commercials - as a girl, and the improbably named Embeth Davidtz as a woman), referred to by Andrew as "Little Miss", comes to love him when Andrew carves a wooden horse for her after accidentally breaking her favorite glass horse. It turns out, however, that Andrew's creation is entirely original, not merely a copy, and Sir (Sam Neill) - the family's father - realizes that Andrew has creativity and is therefore unique among robots.

The film follows Andrew's life as he becomes more self-aware and gains a desire to become free (rather than the mere servant of humans) and eventually to become recognized as human himself. Over two centuries he gains his freedom, and watches his first owners grow old and die, and a new generation grow up. He goes to seek out other of his own kind, but only finds one remaining version of his model, a female robot named Galatea, owned by an inventor named Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt in an amusing role), who invents ways for Andrew to appear and feel more human. He meets Little Miss' granddaughter Portia (also Davidtz) and falls in love with her.

Other than the love story and a couple of missing scenes, this is quite similar to Asimov's novella. There are, as Diana Rowland observed, a lot of deathbed scenes, starting with that of Sir. The film also jumps frequently between extended scenes of dialog, and shorter scenes which show Andrew following his desires, such as crossing the world in search of robots like him. It's the acting which holds it all together: Williams' ability to adopt a set of physical mannerisms provides the continuity for Andrew's personality, Neill is excellent as Sir with his generous sense of morality and understanding of how special Andrew is, and Platt's brief turn as Burns ranges from amusing to sublime. Davidtz doesn't stand out in the same way, but she and Williams seem to have some genuine chemistry on screen, which helps.

Perhaps the best comparison for Andrew's character is with Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, who also yearns to be human. But whereas Data's evolution was erratic (and often undone by the occasional lousy episode, such as the one where he tries dating a human), we see Andrew evolve naturally over time from a robot with little experience who doesn't understand concepts like humor, to one who functions well within human society despite not quite having the same needs. His frustration with Galatea is understandable and amusing at times.

Actually, the script is to be lauded for generally having a good sense of humor without falling to the level of a sitcom; the viewer never quite cringes and thinks, "I can't believe he did that!", thank goodness.

My biggest complaint with the film is that my favorite moment from the novella - in which the term "Bicentennial Man" is coined - is not present in the movie, which is too bad. But otherwise I felt it moved right along with rarely a dull moment. And yeah, I'm a sucker for melodrama, so I cried during some of the scenes.

It's a good film. Check it out.

Actually, I think Bicentennial Man was also another reason I've been feeling a sense of my own mortality lately. Wondering what I'm doing with my life, feeling that, at age 30, I'm running out of time to do many of the things I'd like to do, or think I'd like to do (or even trying to figure out what I'd like to do!).

I'm starting to feel old.