I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch)
Silver Bear winner for Best Leading Performance for Maren Eggert
If you could design a lover and calibrate them to your every desire, would you fall for them or would it feel artificial? I’m Your Man explores this question, plunging into what makes human relationships work with a striking science-fiction premise.
Alma (Maren Eggert) is a researcher with the Pergamon museum in Berlin and agrees to take part in a trial for a cutting-edge android in exchange for access to research funds. She is paired with sophisticated humanoid robot Tom (Dan Stevens) who is designed to become her ideal partner.
The plot moves from friction to affinity, like a rom-com, with Alma barely tolerating this strange, eager new presence in her life, but as the robot learns more about the world and what makes people think, the pair start to warm to each other. Dan Stevens brilliantly imbues the role with disarming charm and pathos and at times their chemistry is sizzling enough to suck the audience in. Tom’s perceptive insights and endearing vulnerability melts Alma’s defences and forces her to stop treating him like another piece of furniture
There is a lot of promise in the premise and casting but unfortunately it feels squandered by clumsy direction that fails to bring all the pieces together coherently. There is a vacuum where some atmosphere could help ease the viewer into this half-baked world. Banal cinematography, flabby editing and a drained colour palette might have been reaching for a “minimalist” aesthetic but instead the end result suggests an unimaginative approach to budget restrictions.
I’m Your Man is a sedate meditation on what makes us human and why we yearn for connection but falls short of really penetrating and exploring those themes in a meaningful way.
Sean Gallen
I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch) does not have a UK release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2021 coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.
Watch a clip from I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch) here:
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