I Am Mother takes place in a post-apocalyptic world after a worldwide human extinction event, and focuses on a robot named Mother, voiced by Rose Byrne, who is designated to help rebuild humanity through a large mass of human embryos she grows in an automated bunker. She only grows one, an unnamed girl who’s simply known as Daughter, played by Clara Rugaard, and the two initially bond over many years. However, Daughter soon becomes curious as to what the outside world is like, especially when an unnamed woman, played by Hillary Swank, seeks shelter in the bunker, and causes Daughter to question what Mother has been teaching her.
While a post-apocalyptic thriller focusing on a large, dominating robot, this is actually much more of a quieter, reflective drama that focuses on family and relationships. Much of the tension in this movie stems from Mother and Daughter’s relationship coming into question. In one of the most beautiful sequences in the entire movie, the bond they form is shown through a wonderful montage showing Daughter growing up as Dumbo’s “Baby Mine” plays over each scene.
Mother may be strict with her rules, but she has a soothing, calming voice. Rose Byrne’s voice work is absolutely fantastic here, channeling the energy of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, although speaking with just a tad bit more emotion. When everything is calm, her voice makes everything feel like it’s going to be alright, and when things are going south, her consistent tone that’s just above a whisper can send chills down one’s spine.
So it’s difficult who to believe when the Woman crashes the party and shakes up the status quo, providing a solid reason that seemingly proves that everything Mother has been telling Daughter has been a lie. Yet while Mother retains her soothing tone - with this being the first ever incident that causes Daughter to call her into question - the Woman is loud, brash, and more prone to violence to get what she needs.
Despite all this, she makes it clear that she ultimately does want to help Daughter. And this is where Hillary Swank really gets to shine. She has a very forceful presence that makes her thoroughly engaging to watch, dominating many of the heated conversations between herself and Mother. However, she doesn’t enjoy causing Daughter’s comfy reality to come crashing down and it can be seen. Ultimately she wants Daughter to trust her, and their hopeful-relationship is another major source of drama here.
And so the film becomes more of a mystery, with much of the drama resting in Daughter’s hands, as she decides whether to trust this stranger who wants her to join the rest of humanity or a fairly reclusive robot who she’s known her entire life. A lot of this film ultimately relies on Clara Rugaard’s performance, and she does a really solid job with the material here. The pained expressions on her face as she keeps receiving new information is really heartbreaking to watch, as her world is turned upside down.
The only downside that comes with this sort of drama is that much of the film is essentially this giant back-and-forth as Daughter tries figuring out which of the two is really lying to her. The film is nearly two hours long, and there are quite a few exchanges where Daughter will repeatedly go back and forth between who she really trusts and who she looks to protect her. Sometimes Mother will make one wrong move, and she goes running to the Woman, who in turn may make an unfavorable decision that causes Daughter to go running back to Mother fairly quickly.
The film feels a bit wishy-washy at times and could have easily cut down on a few of these exchanges. There are times where it feels like it’s stalling just for the sake of adding extra drama where it wasn’t exactly needed. The film makes it pretty clear fairly early on that both the Woman and Mother have qualities that make them untrustworthy, and the amount of times it switches between who it may be comes off more as meandering rather than building any true suspense.
However, while there are some moments that could have been cut, this movie is mostly suspenseful. First time director Grant Sputore - who also wrote the screenplay - does a solid job creating an unsettling, dark atmosphere that also manages to feel stylish. There are moments in which a character will enter a dark room that will suddenly be lit with some unique color schemes, that make for some memorable imagery. And the film’s brooding soundtrack makes it feel reminiscent of older, much more sinister films of a similar nature, like THX 1138 or 1984, which make each time either Mother or the Woman speak feel even more unsettling at certain points.
While I Am Mother could have been just a bit shorter, overall it’s an effective sci-fi thriller. A very performance-heavy film, it contains three standout performances from Clara Rugaard, Rose Byrne, and Hillary Swank, all of whom share some really great chemistry with one another that makes for some really compelling drama. Creepy, atmospheric, and at times heartbreaking, despite one of the main characters being a robot, this film actually has some real heart to it.
Recommendation: Watch It
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