Subservience, 2024.
Directed by S.K. Dale.
Starring Megan Fox, Michele Morrone, Madeline Zima, Matilda Firth, Andrew Whipp, Jude Greenstein, Atanas Srebrev, Manal El-Feitury, Kate Nichols, and Kexin Wang.
SYNOPSIS:
With his wife out sick, a struggling father brings home a lifelike AI—only to have his self-aware new help want everything her new family has to offer, like the affection of her owner. And she’ll kill to get it.
S.K. Dale’s Subservience has its mind in the right place for about 45 minutes before devolving into a standard humanoid robot going on a rampage slasher. Not only is this eventual direction disappointing since the setup is somewhat restrained and focused on human/robot character dynamics and the disheartening nature of AI increasingly taking over job forces such as construction workers, but also because this is the same filmmaker who got a surprisingly thrilling performance from the notoriously wooden and lifeless Megan Fox in Till Death, which put her in home invasion survival mode while taking advantage of her model body frame for suspense by leaving her handcuffed to a dead man meaning that every exertion of energy to move around was a physical struggle, lugging around dead weight.
This film (from screenwriters Will Honley and April Maguire) is an example of grabbing the lowest hanging fruit, with Megan Fox cast as an actual robot with advanced AI programming, essentially giving her trademark robot performance, except that this time it fits the character. Even accounting for that, it still feels uninspired and routine.
Given the name Alice, she is purchased by the grieving and stressed out Nick (Michele Morrone) following an abrupt heart attack from his supportive wife Maggie (Madeline Zima, also the only one giving anything near a competent and convincing performance here) that sidelined her in a hospital with Nick juggling an abundance of parenting duties (they have a young child and a toddler) while trying to make it to the construction site on time every day. While taking the kids shopping, he stumbles across the state-of-the-art robot and, of course, chooses to purchase the most conventionally attractive one available. Unsurprisingly, this won’t be his only lapse in judgment.
Despite the rough performance from Michele Morrone (looking at his credit, it’s a no-brainer that his only acting experience seems to be in smutty Netflix movies since most of his line deliveries are forced and insincere), the screenplay is smart enough not to depict the character as 100% morally misguided, but more of a flawed human being who ends up letting Alice get the best of him emotionally and sexually.
It would also be unfair to say that Nick doesn’t understand his actions in those moments, but there is a real internal struggle with him being aware that his wife might not get a replacement heart in time and that this sentient robot that he is resistant to and suspicious about would be his source of pleasure. Alice also makes clear that Nick is happy when his blood pressure and stress levels are low following sexual pleasure, which adds another murky layer to his complicated mindset.
Frustratingly, Subservience meanders through every act, each becoming repetitive for specific reasons. Unnecessarily, it’s a good 40 minutes before the film even answers the question of whether or not Maggie will die. Even though impatience settles in, that’s also where the film is most engaging since it is more character-driven and about watching Nick steadily giving in to his inner desires.
Meanwhile, Alice also asserts herself as a more efficient mother due to her vast information database. As these movies typically go, she helps out around the house, cleaning and taking care of the children, fulfilling the role of a servant wife that Nick begins to enjoy too much, even if his reservations are still there. However, he does maintain that she will never be able to replace Alice (even after they engage in intercourse) because she lacks a human heart and will never understand the complexities of human emotions.
Several tensions rise to the surface, not limited to Alice’s gradually taking over the household but also Nick’s angry coworkers seeking retribution against the construction company for laying most of them off and destroying their personal lives. Alice is also increasingly adopting free will in dangerous ways that will have consequences beyond breaking apart this family. Again, it mostly erupts in clichéd, generic violence, visually unsuccessfully mirroring James Cameron’s blue hues for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Subservience proves to be shackled to formula, morphing into brainless, forgettably constructed slasher sequences that override any sense of worthwhile, topical characterization, doing no favors to the already mostly terrible performances.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at [email protected]
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