I Am Mother Review: A Sci-Fi Film That Wants to Say A Lot, But Leaves You With Questions
Netflix’s recent sci-fi movie release I Am Mother features a strong cast, and some interesting–yet scary–ideas.
Set in a futuristic sci-fi bunker where a teenage girl is being raised by a robot designed to repopulate Earth with stored embryos, I Am Mother delivers a meditation about human nature, what it means to be human, and the concept of motherhood.
Warning: The rest of this review will contain spoilers for the film. If you have yet to watch I Am Mother this is your chance to exit.
On the surface, the bunker-style plot of the film is something we might have seen before. While watching I Am Mother, I remembered a 2012 anthology series called Metal Hurlant where a young woman woke up in a bunker with a man who told her it was the end of the world.
The dynamic in I Am Mother is very similar. Mother, a robot voiced by Rose Byrne, and Daughter, played by Clara Rugaard-Larsen have a similar bond. Mother has raised Daughter from infancy, but Daughter is getting older and growing curious about life outside. Their life is comfortable but far from idyllic, and they have a routine and bond that works for them in this scenario.
Yet, because the relationship forged between Mother and Daughter is so compacted it’s hard to feel grounded towards it. The complications begin to arise when a stranger enters their space.
The disruption caused by Hilary Swank’s Woman feels natural. After all, the bunker is a controlled environment and Mother is the master of all of that. Having an outside perspective on droids and what they are capable of is unsettling and pushes Daughter to question what she knows.
The wrought relationship between Mother and Daughter is tested on a fundamental level during the film, and if you are able to sit with and dig at what’s happening, I Am Mother offers some interesting social commentary on the idea of motherhood but stops just short of making its point.
In many ways, I Am Mother is part coming-of-age story, part meditation on motherhood. There is a generational element to the story, and there is a grand experiment happening behind the curtain.
The revelation that Mother has actually been working on her own unbiased eugenics experiment to get to daughter is a shocking revelation, but also not unexpected on the part of the audience. The confrontation towards the end of the film feels like it happens a little too late and this revelation doesn’t play out to its potential.
In fact, the most informative moments in I Am Mother are in the final moments of the last act, but it takes the context of the rest of the film to get you there.
After watching I Am Mother, it’s hard not to sit back and think about the themes of motherhood that this movie tries to convey. The idea of motherhood is such a complex topic, and I Am Mother does seem to tackle it really well, but when all is said and done, I am left with questions.
I’m not opposed to a film leaving something open-ended. I like when I can sit back and ask myself questions and meditate on the implications of certain actions, but I think a lot of my disappointment with I Am Mother comes from Woman.
Hilary Swank’s woman was a disruption to a quiet life, but she also had more potential outside the walls of the bunker. That potential never came to fruition and left me feeling like she served little more than a plot device to get Daughter to breach the walls of her home.
Combine that letdown with the ending of I Am Mother, and I am left wondering what’s going to happen next.
While I am not sure that I need a complete answer with what Daughter does with the embryos, I do wish we saw a compelling reason for her to venture outside the bunker again.
The final shot leaves me wondering what choices she’s going to make beyond making sure that the embryos are taken care of. If the external world had been built up a little more I think we could see a brighter and potentially more positive future for Daughter and their family.
What did you think of this episode of I Am Mother? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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I Am Mother is now available on Netflix.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.