Bicentennial Man

CinemaSerf

It's a bit of a linguistic faux-pas that gives their new android the name "Andrew" (Robin Williams) after it arrives at the home of "Sir" (Sam Neill), his wife (Wendy Crewson) and their two daughters. The younger of those is a little more engaged with this butler-cum-housekeeper but her sibling thinks it belongs on a scrapheap - sometimes with quite humorous results. As the family start to get used to their new gadget, though, they experience some surprising changes in attitudes and questions are raised about just what constitutes "humanity". He is sympathetic, creative, empathetic and those characteristics aren't wasted on the mother in whom he confides his desire for freedom. Isn't he happy? Why does he want to leave? Well "Sir" takes a bit of umbridge at this request but grants it - and so "Andrew" finds himself free to live his life as he sees fit whilst still remaining in contact with a family who are no less divided about him and his role than they were a generation (or two) ago. Meantime, he embarks on a quest to track down the other robots of his generation and that introduces him to scientist "Rupert" (Oliver Platt) who suggests that there are ways of changing his appearance to present an altogether more human appearance. This unnerves those of his human family but enables him to re-engage with the sceptical "Portia" (Embeth Davidtz) and so take his journey onto an whole new and emotional level. Williams always was good at crafting a character that could bring a tear from a glass eye, and aided by a solid Isaac Asimov story and a typically orchestral score from James Horner he manages to create a character in whom we could invest a little. Of course, some of it is just plain daft and as "Andrew" hits his bicentennial the societal environment in which he lives did seem totally unrealistic, but by that point it had stopped being a sci-fi story and become something more of a romance that I struggled a bit to believe in. It's essentially a story of evolution - human and technological, and it's also one that sets out clearly the potential for artificial intelligence to acquire the need for love and for the ability to give it too.