I saw this and enjoyed it.
Like Ex Machina and Moon, it's another triad character study in a "locked room".
I agree with most of the reviews that it doesn't quite meet its earlier standard in the last quarter of the film or so, so it doesn't quite succeed as well as the other two films I mentioned.
Overall though, a decent effort in a difficult genre to pull off.
Science fiction itself requires:
1. An interesting question or thesis.
-I think I am Mother does a decent job with this - asking questions about maternity and the inherent qualities of a good mother, and whether these are qualities that can be programmed or incorporated into an artificial intelligence, along with the consequences of that programming.
In addition, good science fiction films require:
2. An engrossing mood, feel or style.
In order for the viewer to fully immerse themselves in the story, the future environment has to be accessible and feasible in a manner that allows for the suspension of disbelief. We want to be able to picture ourselves living in that life.
This can be created through excellent cinematography, restrained but elegant use of CGI, effective soundtracks and sound and impeccable attention to detail.
-Again, the "locked room" concept grants the opportunity to create a future environment that is achievable and believable on a relatively modest budget, eliminating the need for wanton CGI to fill in the details. I won't go into spoilers here, but the environment outside is left fairly sparse and ambiguous, which is probably the right way to go.
3. Compelling characters.
Something that science-fiction literature often struggles with is characterization, where the author is more interested in exploring the premise and the question than developing fully-realized characters. Film offers less opportunity to do so, given the lack of internal monologue, and screentime is limited, so the challenge is greater. At the same time, a lot can be said through emoting and excellent acting, requiring less exposition.
-While the characters themselves are fairly limited and are largely one-dimensional in nature, the performances themselves are excellent. One can easily argue that they are left deliberately underdeveloped in order to create the overriding tension throughout the film. Motivations of each of them are up to the viewer to discern.
-Rose Byrne's "Mother" and Kevin Spacey's "Gertie" in Moon manage to present warm and soothing personalities with ominous overtones in a manner much reminiscent of HAL 9000. Meanwhile, Alicia Vikander's Ava in Ex Machina offers a great deal more complexity given her anthropromorphological state and the underlying metaphor for male and female dominance.
-The pleasant surprise doesn't come from Hillary Swank's serviceable "survivor" character but rather the main character, Daughter, played by Clara Rugaard. In a very difficult role, she conveys emotions and makes decisions that are at least comprehensible given her limited worldview and her abilities never seem to be extraneously given or superpowered. So often, children are used as plot devices to make stupid and idiotic decisions in order to force the story forward. I suspect that she has a very good career ahead of her.
4. A resolution to the thesis
Yes, you can answer a question with another question, but I consider that to be lazy science-fiction. Good science fiction requires the creator to take a stand on something and make an argument.
-Here is where I think the film stumbles a bit. While it bravely tries to maintain the ambiguity and mystery as long as possible, the transition to the known is rather abrupt and the pacing takes a hit as a result. The elegance of the film begins to show wear and tear as pointless "travelling" sequences are included and Swank's character starts to unravel.
-There's a bit of a twist but it's not particularly surprising nor particularly compelling. There's no real payoff to the mystery of the outside world. It's by design, but by leading you down that road a little bit, you end up disappointed at the lack of resolution. The Road film adapted from Cormac Macarthy's book does a better job with this.
-But ultimately the film is about motherhood, and a girl who is presented with two mother figures to emulate. Everything else is extraneous and I think the film loses its razor-sharp focus a little bit at the end, while both Moon and Ex Machina manage to navigate to the end without losing it.
-Another excellent film that loses points for its ending is Sunshine, which is extremely compelling for 3/4 of the film and also struggles across the finish line.
Conclusions
It's becoming easier all the time to develop and present science-fiction material given advances in technology and the associated budgetary savings.
We really are living in a golden age for creators who wish to visually present the "what if?" scenarios they envisage.
While I can't give this film top marks for execution, it's still worth a watch and it's gratifying to see "thinking sci-fi" on the main stage as opposed to simply space operas or Westerns filmed in space.
Meanwhile, if you did like this movie and haven't seen Moon or Ex Machina, hop to it!
Other reviews have compared it to the "locked room" scenario of 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I have yet to see.
A really good "locked room" mystery series of books is the Silo series by Hugh Howey, though it's more of a sprawling epic rather than an economical little story.
7/10