- Bicentennial Man follows the life and times of Andrew (Robin Williams), a robot programmed to perform menial tasks, but who displays uncharacteristically human emotions, curiosity and creativity. Andrew soon discovers what it truly means to be a human being with the help of Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) and his understanding owner (Sam Neill). Andrew is no ordinary robot! System Requireme
Williams plays Andrew, a robot programmed for domestic chores and sold to an upper-middle-class family, the Martins, in the year 2005. The family patriarch (Sam Neill) recognizes and encourages Andrew's uncommon characteristics, particularly his artis! tic streak, sensitivity to beauty, humor, and independence of! spirit. In so doing, he sets Williams's tin man on a two-century journey to become more human than most human beings.
As adapted by screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, the movie's scale is novelistic, though Columbus isn't the man to embrace with Spielbergian confidence its sweeping possibilities. Instead, the Home Alone director shakes off his familiar tendencies to pander and matures, finally, as a captivating storyteller. But what really makes this film matter is its undercurrent of deep yearning, the passion of Andrew as a convert to the human race and his willingness to sacrifice all to give and take love. Williams rises to an atypical challenge here as a futuristic Everyman, relying, perhaps for the first time, on his considerable iconic value to make the point that becoming human means becoming more like Robin Williams. Nothing wrong with that. --Tom Keogh
Tweet |
0 comments: