ALMOST HUMAN (aka UNCANNY aka ANDROID)

 

My DVD of Almost Human (aka Uncanny and Android) (© Matthew Leutwyler/Accelerated Matter/RLJ Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch choice on 5 June 2021 was the official DVD of a very absorbing, compelling sci fi film entitled Almost Human (variously retitled as Uncanny or Android when released in some territories).

Directed by Matthew Leutwyler, released in 2015, and starring Mark Webber and David Clayton Rogers in the two intimately-linked starring roles, Almost Human concerns a robotics genius named David Kressen, who was instantly headhunted when graduating from university with multiple degrees in computing and associated subjects at the age of just 19, to work in seclusion thereafter at a secret laboratory with unlimited funding to finance every idea that he conceives.

David's work has yielded extraordinary creations and innovations, but none more so than Adam, a life-like android, who is also his only companion – until they receive a visit from a magazine article writer named Joy (Lucy Griffiths), who also has a background in robotics. She is permitted to stay for a week with David to study his work and interact with Adam, whose ability to understand and display human emotions increases profoundly during the course of her 7-day visit, although he remains much more reticent and inhibited in his manner than the far more extrovert, talkative, socially-adept David.

Before the week is over, Joy has become romantically attracted to David, whose own initial arrogance and patronising behaviour towards her swiftly disappeared as they became better acquainted, until finally on the last night of her stay they make love. Meanwhile, Adam has become unequivocally jealous of David and Joy's emotional relationship, from which he has become increasingly and deliberately excluded by them, despite his awkward, hesitant attempts to make Joy like him too.

And then of course comes the massive climactic twist in this highly unusual love triangle, one that I'd actually considered as a "what if" scenario while watching the movie's earlier portion but without realising that this indeed was exactly where its storyline was leading. But the biggest shock of all is reserved for the very end, tucked away in a brief mid-credits scene, so be sure not to skip the credits.

I won't give any more away, but I found Almost Human particularly engrossing, with both Webber and Rogers imbuing their more than typically complex characters with the essential opacity that these particular roles vitally require if this movie's intrinsic plot ploy is to succeed.

I've said before that I judge a movie very much by how often I check my watch while viewing it to see how much time is left – the more times I check, the less interesting the movie is to me. When viewing Almost Human, I never checked my watch once, which says it all as far as I'm concerned.

Under its alternative title Uncanny, Almost Human is currently available to view for free on YouTube (albeit with slightly out of sync voice/visuals) if you click here; and an official trailer for it can be viewed by clicking here.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.