'Soulm8te' needs more human effort
HANDOUT
On the plus side, the numeric title of “Soulm8te” works better than “M3gan.” Actually, maybe not as one character in the former notes that it kinda looks like soulmate-ate, or something even more awkward. But the title isn’t the point. Just because the latter movie didn’t go to a sexual place doesn’t mean that we need a new movie that does — between “Companion” and “Obsession” and “Her” and “Weird Science” and whatever, the idea is both still-relevant due to technology and loneliness and also immensely overdone.
At least, it’s overdone like this, where flickers of inquiry into the way humans use technological innovation to repair wounds or create convenience when more tech-free work might be better in the short- and/or long-term, quickly takes a back seat to everything going bonkers. You can probably predict all of this: Tech employee David (David Rysdahl) is still grappling with the loss of his partner and therefore accepts the chance to beta test a stunningly lifelike and stunningly beautiful companion he dubs Sara (Lily Sullivan), for whom he soon rewrites codes to make her more real. Thankfully, nothing ever goes wrong in this situation, and the movie doesn’t resort to multiple, squishy opportunities to be gross while also fumbling what might have been smarter considerations of consent and despair.
Director/co-writer Kate Dolan fortunately includes some dark humor (like Elsie, the movie’s version of Alexa, playing a song called “You Can Never Get Away From Me” before an angered Sara arrives), and there will always be room to explore objectification and idealization. But “Soulm8te” isn’t “Ruby Sparks” or a movie that’s curious about how many people might be fine with the basic version of Sara, untinkered with and less human. As a result, the movie, like its subject, is pretty well made and clearly not a good idea.
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