Film Review: Bicentennial Man (1999)

Film Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) | Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

The author of this review has greeted few pieces of cinema with lower expectations than Bicentennial Man, 1999 science fiction film directed by Chris Columbus. There are two reasons for that. One is in its literary source – eponymous novella by Isaac Asimov, legendary author of science fiction which in this particular case stood out because of its sentimentality that often went beyond corniness. The second is reputation of the director Chris Columbus, best known for family-friendly ultrasentimental films. This, together with rather uninspiring trailer created a lot red flags but after watching Bicentennial Man I found many of my fears to be unfounded.

The plot begins in (then future) year of 2005 when Martins, an American family, purchases new wonder of technology – NDR-114, a robot specialised for doing various domestic chores. Due to its humanoid form, it is nicknamed “Andrew”by Richard “Sir” Martin (played by Sam Neill), head of household. Through time it becomes favourite pet of his younger daughter, 7-year old Amanda (played by Hallie Kate Eisenberg), whom “Andrew” calls “Little Miss”. After a while, Sir begins to notices certain unusual qualities in the robot, mainly its artistic talent, so Sir realises that his property is in spiritual sense not different than humans. With complicated legal manoeuvring he manages to win his freedom and status of actual person. As years pass, Andrew becomes wealthy and also begins to feel human emotions that include love towards Portia (played by Embeth Davidtz), granddaughter of Little Miss. Andrew decides to use further advancement of technology to become human in physical sense. In doing so, he gets help from Robert Burns (played by Oliver Platt), scientist and inventor who had inherited “Galatea” (played by Kiersten Warren), woman-like robot that, like Andrew, possesses human personality. Burns and Andrew spends next few decades trying to make Andrew’s body as identical to human body as possible.

While anyone had good reasons to expect just another Hollywood mix of diabetes-inducing sentimentality and feather-light comedy, Bicentennial Man actually works as serious drama dealing with issues you are more likely to find in philosophical books – nature of someone’s identity and purpose of someone’s existence. While there is indeed some humour and light-heartedness in the film, it is contained mostly in the first sixty minutes of film. Chris Columbus switched his gear and took more serious tone in the second half of Bicentennial Man that deals with “Andrew” realising that everyone he knew and loved are, unlike him, mortal and that his future looks like endless series of heart-breaking losses. Script by Nicholas Kazan allows audience to think, although doesn’t shy away from sentimentality and some of the more sensitive viewers would be wise to have handkerchiefs ready when watching this film. Yet, this sentimentality looks more honest and natural then in most Hollywood products. Columbus also shows great sense of rhythm and two centuries of change in the film are shown very slowly but realistically. Characters in the film age in natural way and Columbus, unlike many Hollywood authors of science fiction, try his best not to rely on special effects.

What is most interesting in this film is that Robin Williams uses one rare opportunities to depart from his usual comic personality and handle more dramatic and demanding roles. The role was further challenging because for the most part he had to act under heavy make-up and in impractical costume, trying to mimic mechanic movements of his characters. Other members of the cast are very good, especially Embeth Davidtz in demanding double role of Little Miss and her granddaughter. Same should be said about always dependable character actors like Sam Neill and Oliver Platt. The most serious flaws of Bicentennial Man are the ending being slightly overmelodramatic and music by James Horner being too manipulative.

The most valuable thing about Bicentennial Man is in the way that it uses motive of robots quite differently than many Hollywood films in previous two decades. Instead of showing concepts of robots, cyborgs or androids as an excuse for action-packed mayhem, it tries to deal with the issue seriously and even educates the audience about Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics. After the premiere this film flopped at the box office and was greeted with little enthusiasm by critics. But that shouldn’t discourage today’s viewers from giving it a chance. They might easily find it to be vastly superior to some later films like A.I. Artificial Intelligence and I, Robot that dealt with the similar issues.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)