T.I.M., 2023.
Directed by Spencer Brown.
Starring Eamon Farren, Georgina Campbell, Nathaniel Parker, Mark Rowley, Amara Karan, Tom Bell, Edmund Kingsley, Janis Ahern, and Eliza Glock.
SYNOPSIS:
Prosthetics scientist Abi and her adulterous husband Paul adjust to life outside the city as Abi begins working for the high-tech company Integrate, developing a humanoid AI – T.I.M.
It is reasonable to assume that co-writer/director Spencer Brown (working alongside Sarah Govett) wanted to comment on the line between knowing everything about your partner and obsessing over your partner with T.I.M. (short for Technologically Integrated Manservant), a thriller about an android who develops an intense attraction towards its married prosthetics engineer owner trying to maximize efficiency on its hands. The problem is that nearly every idea these filmmakers have come up with for stalking and perverse intrusion is either poorly acted, hysterically overdone, or laughably bad on account of how impossibly dumb every character here behaves.
That leads to the other misguided, unintentionally baffling aspect: T.I.M. is a movie seemingly trying to make a point about male jealousy, only for the man to be correct at every turn that this android is a creep that’s up to no good. To be fair, anyone with a functioning brain would become skeptical as soon as the android asks to synchronize itself to every electronic device in the house, going as far as sending emails, making online purchases, and being able to mimic voices during phone calls.
The exception to this common sense is Georgina Campbell’s Abi, committed to her work engineering the android’s hand usage and still distrusting her significant other, Paul (Mark Rowley), who apparently cheated on her at one point in the relationship. Trusting an android getting a bit too interested in the concept of love over this husband feels like a stretch, especially given everything that happens in the movie. Almost every scene here descends into unintended comedy; none of it is suspenseful or thought-provoking. T.I.M. is a familiar story that doesn’t seem to realize that it’s impossible to take anything here seriously.
Eamon Farren is tasked with playing the android, and to give credit where it’s due, he does come across as effectively unsettling in the dark. However, when the lights are on, every special effect is transparent and looks awkward. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter since everything the injury does, from sniffing clothing to passively aggressively bumping into Paul, comes across as funny. Every bit of the narrative is telegraphed, leaving nothing to surprise, but even if there was something unexpected, that too would probably end up as another joke.
Once Abi finally becomes wise to what’s happening here, for starters, there are only about 10 minutes left in the movie, but there is also at least one tense survival segment. It goes to show that if the filmmakers had just made the characters slightly more intelligent (even the ones who are supposed to be smart make some truly dumb choices), there could have been something salvageable here. T.I.M. starts off with a decent dynamic and something to potentially say about relationships before embarrassing itself at every turn, practically begging itself to be shut down so you can watch something better.
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 MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
