Life Like, the review of the science fiction film on Prime Video

James takes over the management of the family trust fund from his late father. A role that will see him much busier than before and which will lead him to spend many hours of the day in the office, leaving his wife alone Sophie. To adapt to that lifestyle they move to a suburban villa, where James employs a butler, a maid and a cook. To Sophie though I don’t like all that staff who hangs around the house and decides to fire him.

As we tell you in the review of LifeLiketo overcome the increasingly burdensome housework, James convinces his partner to visit Julian, a technology guru who sells futuristic android models, outwardly indistinguishable from a human being. Sophie, jealous of her husband’s possible attentions towards a female-looking robot, asserts her reasons and the choice therefore falls on a male model, Julian. The entry of the new helper into the house risks triggering unexpected situations…

Mirrors and reflections

He repeatedly recalls various episodes of Black Mirrorinvestigating a common thread often investigated by science fiction more recent, with echoes of Ex Machina (2014) and other themed films that pop up during the hour and a half of viewing. LifeLike it would also be an enjoyable title if that weren’t the case extremely derivative in the exposition of the triangle between the three main characters, with the walls of the house as the only setting to serve as the backdrop to this story of potential betrayals and growing jealousies. The real surprise, which gives that hint of amazement, is in the final twist, partially unpredictable and capable of overturning what was seen previously in a more bitter and cruel perspective. At the same time however, they are also hiding behind the cliffhanger forcing and implausibilities which emerge precisely after the fact and which do not make the aforementioned narrative turn entirely credible.

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Me, robot

She’s not the creepy little girl doll of Megan (2022) but has the appearance and sculpted physique of Steven Strait this android who day after day demonstrates increasingly human behavior, complete with the classic questions “you can dream?” or “do you know what love is?” posed by the dazed spouses who find themselves facing a real couple crisis after he entered the house. On the other hand, the creator himself asks the question to the annoyed husband “Would you be jealous of a vibrator?” and here are the double meanings and the sexual soul of the story they stir on restless waters, waiting for that revealing epilogue that opens up new, or perhaps old, horizons.

The future that awaits us?

LifeLike marks the debut behind the camera of a feature film by Josh Janowiczalso author of the screenplay, which by making use of his experience in the advertising field he manages to manage with a certain solidity in the staging, despite not excelling in any kind of virtuosity and lacking any truly evocative or action sequences. The camera thus focuses on the cast, on the faces of those characters struggling with nervous breakdowns and with a nascent insecurity that turns into fear, fear of that unknown person who lives and coexists in the same rooms there with them.
New steps of a fake evolution they follow one another in a story that reminds us to take care of our affections, since evil and the danger of losing loved ones are to be found first of all in one’s own mistakes rather than in external causes, however worrying they may be. Ua simple but effective morality to give substance to a story that thrives on ups and downs.