Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 25,2019
Plot (Spoiler Alert)
In a world where humanity is extinct, a robot creates a human child, raises it and shares a bond with it. Things change between the mother and daughter when a human shows up at the front door of their bunker.
Blaine: Director Grant Sputore and screenwriter Michael Lloyd Green were inspired by a lot of sci-fi classics from the 80s and they wanted to make a sci-fi movie of their own. They would have conversations with each other to figure out something that hadn’t been done before and then a robotic mother raising a human daughter came to mind. Grant and Michael would talk and talk about what was on their minds and they were really putting a lot of brain power in developing the idea for “I Am Mother”. It takes a brilliant mind to come up with something like “I Am Mother”.
They would also talk about what goes on in life, what they fear the future will be like, if being a parent is something you are ready for and teaching your child things. Grant had never directed a movie before, his background is commercials. To make a sci-fi his first feature was a dream come true for Grant. “I Am Mother” was shot at a studio in Adelaide, South Australia and Grant felt relaxed while making the movie there. The reason it was relaxing is because most studio executives will show up on set and disturb an artist as he is bringing his vision to life, but not in Adelaide. It was like a sanctuary.
There are only three characters in “I Am Mother” and they don’t have names. They are just a robotic mother, a human daughter and a stranger from the outside.
Daughter wants more out of life because she does the same things everyday. Studies, workout, make origami sculptures. Things look like they are unfair and boring for Daughter.
Daughter’s dream is to have a family because it’s just been her and Mother all her life. She would like brothers and sisters. Daughter is also very curious to know what it’s like outside the bunker. She is told by Mother that there is a contagion outside, but still she wonders.
Danish actress Clara Regard hasn’t been in much. “I Am Mother” is her first lead role and she loved everything about her experience in making “I Am Mother”. Clara also found the character, Daughter, very interesting of who she is and what she is experiencing as she read through the script. Clara became this character as she was bringing her to life.
Grant wanted Mother to look life like and didn’t want her to be a CGI effect. He wanted something believable. It was a challenge to figure out on how it would work. A team of well crafted artists would design Mother’s look and put together this suit at WETA workshop. One of the people who worked on the Mother suit was Luke Hawker. Luke has done a lot in his career, like acting, stunt work and has designed costumes and prosthetics for movies like “Chappie” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It seemed clear to everyone that Luke should be the one to play Mother. They tested him out by having him put on the Mother suit. Everyone thought Luke was amazing, the way he would move like a machine while wearing that suit and it made it easy for Clara Regaard and Hilary Swank to be acting with a machine character that was actually there. Mother was voiced by Rose Bryn and she wasn’t required until “I Am Mother” was in post-production. Rose would say her lines through a microphone while looking at a screen in front of her. Rose made her voice sound soothing the whole time.
They had an actor to wear the Mother suit and a newcomer to play Daughter, but who would play the stranger who comes from outside. Grant felt an actor who is well known should play the part and Hilary Swank came to mind. Hilary Swank is not a fan of the Sci-fi genre, but the plot for “I Am Mother” gave her so much to think about. When Grant called Hilary through the phone she was very excited to be talking to him and she really wanted to be involved with “I Am Mother”. So it was that easy. Hilary Swank got involved with “I Am Mother” during shooting and it was a big thing for Grant to have an award winning actress like Hilary to be involved with his first feature. Hilary felt like she was working with Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight and Dunkirk) again because both Grant and Christopher explain things in full detail as they are directing. Grant spent so much time learning everything there is to know about Artificial Intelligence and he shared his info with Hilary because she didn’t know that much about Artificial Intelligence before. The stranger is like Sara Conner from the “Terminator” movies because she fears and despises machines and has to get violent on them if she sees them or if they come near her. She doesn’t trust Mother.
Clara Rugaard would study acting through Hilary Swank because she has had a lot of experience over the past twenty something years.
Hilary Swank’s best scene in “I Am Mother” is when Daughter visits stranger and the stranger is in pain because she refuses to listen to a machine, even though they are trying to help her. She looks like she just survived a bomb explosion while being in battle.
Hilary put a lot into that scene as she was acting through it. That scene I would say is a great learning experience if you want to be an actor.
Mother keeps telling Daughter to study for this exam, but Daughter is distracted now that they have a guest.
Daughter has never met another human before Hilary Swank’s character showed up. Daughter found a mouse wandering through the bunker and she found it fascinating to find another living thing. But Mother destroyed the mouse by cremating it. Then the stranger shows up and Daughter has another interesting thing to study. Daughter won’t allow Mother to destroy the stranger like she did with the mouse. It’s like the stranger is a priceless artifact. The stranger tells Daughter there are other people out there and Daughter is interested in meeting them. Mother sees Daughter and the stranger getting close to each other and that concerns her. The stranger tells Daughter the robots she has seen and fought are dangerous. Daughter is asking herself if Mother is involved with them and if she is to be trusted. Mother already lied to Daughter by saying there was no life outside their home and that there was a contagion. Daughter thought she knew Mother well. Daughter doesn’t know who’s side to be on between Mother and the stranger. It’s hard to tell who is telling the truth.
Mother and the stranger are messing around with Daughter’s mind. The stranger wants to escape the bunker and tells Daughter she should come with her. Of course it’s hard for Daughter to think about escaping because Mother has allowed Daughter to create a sibling and now she is getting a baby brother. But Daughter knows Mother has been lying to her and she wants to get out, but she wants her little brother first. The bunker is on lockdown. The stranger holds a sharp object to Daughter’s throat, threatening to kill her if Mother doesn’t open the door and let them leave. It’s like a test to see if Mother really cares for Daughter. Mother unlocks the security code and opens the door.
Both Mother and the stranger aren’t complete liars, but at the same time they are not that honest. The stranger hasn’t seen a human in over a decade. She was with a group of people once, but they got separated and she assumes they are dead. The stranger wanted Daughter to come with her to keep her company and Daughter is upset that she lied to her. Daughter wanted to see the outside and now she has. But she doesn’t want to live the rest of her life on the outside because something else has come up and that is her newborn baby brother. The only thing that matters to Daughter is him and so she goes back.
When Daughter was four, she asked Mother why she only made one child and Mother’s answer was to raise one child at a time because that’s all she could handle. Truth is she did make other children that came before Daughter, but they failed their exams and were killed. The exams are more important than you think because it’s a matter of life and death. Mother’s purpose in life is to make sure humanity is better than it was before. Humanity killed itself and Mother has been trying to re-create a more proper humanity. People today are already ruining the Earth by littering, creating machines that will cause people to lose their jobs. “I Am Mother” shows what the future could be like. Mother and the other machines are making sure humanity has a better future. Mother tells Daughter the complete truth, that she has been doing what she was programed to do. Another thing about Mother is that she and the other robots outside are linked together as one. Their minds are one.
Daughter wants to raise her baby brother and she wants to do it without having to burn him into ashes if he fails an exam. Daughter also wants to take over the bunker and do things her way. She makes it convincing she can do it and Mother understands.
It was hard for Daughter to get rid of Mother because even though she was acting dangerous, still she was her mother and she loved her.
One of the robots, from the outside, goes after the stranger because she represents the humanity that was crummy. Everything from the past has to be left behind in order to make a fresh new start for humanity.
Daughter looks at the other embryos and looks like she plans to grow more children. It would be a huge, huge responsibility to take care of that many children, especially for one person. But Daughter looks positive and she’ll need some company now that Mother isn’t with her anymore. Plus she doesn’t have anything else going on in her life.
The song, “Baby of Mine”, is very popular in 2019. Obviously it came from one of Disney’s animated classics, “Dumbo”. The song was used for the 2019 live action “Dumbo”, directed by Tim Burton, and it’s also used for the beginning and end sequence to “I Am Mother”. It’s the best song to sing to a baby. Clara Regaard sings it very beautifully at the end when her character is sining to her newborn brother.
The music score for “I Am Mother” was done by Dan Luscombe and Anthony Partos. The music they did for the entire end credits is so addicting to listen to. I watch the end credits just to listen to that music. It sounds like it is taking you to another world.
Michael Lloyd Green and Grant Sputore have ideas for how “I Am Mother” could continue if people like it. “I Am Mother” has become a success and it was a hit at Sundance.
My rating on “I Am Mother” is five out of five stars
