I’m Your Man

By Joanna Langfield

By Joanna Langfield

Well here’s something a little different: a romantic comedy with a touch of very modern technology and philosophy. And it works.

German filmmaker Maria Schrader has taken a short story and brought it to the screen with care and ambition. What could have become a simple, sweet look at a single woman and the robot designed for her every need goes deeper, with not just a nod to the science fiction crowd, but with a compassionate understanding of what is love in a modern age.

All of this could have still felt heavy and flat, were it not for the performances of the two stars, a captivating Maren Eggert and a damn near perfect (as he should be, I guess) Dan Stevens. While Eggert is best known for her work on German television, she holds the screen beautifully here, allowing us to really care about an intelligent woman who thought her days of romance were behind her. And then there’s Stevens, an actor whose charm made him a standout on Downton Abbey and sense of humor, irresistible in Eurovision. Here, in the tricky role of a humanoid whose only mission is to please, he manages to also bring what feels like an intuitive sense, creating a computer generated character whose loveliness is grounded with a true sense of reality.