Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999)

From: "Walter Frith" <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Feb 2000 18:15:28 GMT

'Bicentennial Man' (1999)

A movie review by Walter Frith

[email-masked]

Member of the 'Online Film Critics Society'
http://www.ofcs.org

'Bicentennial Man' is a test for ourselves and our attitudes.  It is a test
aimed at our degree of cynicism.  How, in the age of ever increasing
resentment towards many things social, can we ever like a film that reaches
out and asks us to look at the world through the eyes of a machine?  Not to
draw a direct comparison, but 'Bicentennial Man' had that strange flavour a
la 'Forrest Gump' where the world is viewed sometimes in a misunderstood way
by those unfamiliar with its realities.  What 'Bicentennial Man' does is it
takes this premise one step forward and instead of using human eyes, the
eyes and functions of a robot get to see it for two hundred years.  Oh, how
many of us would like to see the world two centuries from now.  A cure for
cancer?  AIDS?  Gasoline in cars?  A cashless society?  People living on
other planets?  Day trips to the moon?  The next two top 100 lists from the
American Film Institute of the greatest films of their given century?
Seriously, 'Bicentennial Man' mixes elements of innocence and technology
nicely to give the film a smooth texture and never tries to answer questions
of society's progress a whole lot but concentrates on how one entity
progresses and watches those around him go from one generation to the next.

Chris Columbus is an interesting director.  If he had been around twenty
five or thirty years ago, I can see him having directed a lot of Disney 'B'
fare.  Perhaps those rascally 'Herbie the Love Bug' films or those cheesy
but entertaining films with a young Kurt Russell.  You know, 'The Strongest
Man in the World', 'The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes', and 'Now You See Him,
Now You Don't' to name a few.  In this generation, Columbus has made the
first two 'Home Alone' movies, a gem of a forgotten movie, 'Only the Lonely'
with the late great John Candy, 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and a real sappy letdown
entitled 'Stepmom' which was a film better suited for the likes of Garry
Marshall.

Beginning in the year 2005, Robin Williams is the voice of a robot named
Andrew brought home to a family by the patriarch whom Andrew refers to as
'Sir' (Sam Neill).  There is the lady of the house (Wendy Crewson) and, of
course, you have to have children in a Chris Columbus movie.  The youngest
daughter, Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) is the focus of Andrew's
curiosity as he tries to learn about human behaviour.  One day after a
slight malfunction, Sir takes Andrew to be repaired.  His strange, human
like attributes are explained to the manufacturer (he would love to
manufacture many Andrews like this), but Sir makes Andrew tamper proof and
many years later, Andrew runs into Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), the
manufacturer's successor, who is also a relative, and slowly, Andrew is
given body parts that make him more and more human.  All the while, Andrew
remains faithful to Little Miss, now a grown woman (Embeth Davidtz).
Williams makes his debut in the movie about forty five minutes into the film
as a human like character and his presence is a welcomed one as he continues
his journey and has many visions of life in the two hundred years that he
lives.

Chris Columbus keeps the film on target and maintains a low key approach to
the material.  It feels like a quiet evening spent at home with family
and/or friends doing something docile like playing cards, reading poetry or
playing a board game.  The film has no loud explosions, foul language, major
bursts of emotion and is good family material most of the time.

The film is based on the short story by Issac Asimov and the novel 'The
Positronic Man' by Issac Asimov and Robert Silverburg with a screenplay
written for the screen by Nicholas Kazan ('Reversal of Fortune').  Kazan
brings up memories of some very familiar films such as 'Forrest Gump', as I
mentioned earlier, Woody Allen's 'Sleeper' and a few other films that you
can see for yourself.  This hurts the film somewhat but the direction it dec
ides to take compensates for this somewhat.

When Robin Williams first landed in movies back in the late seventies and
early eighties, I never thought he would elevate himself to the position he
has today.  An Oscar winning actor with an impressive list of important
social films like 'The Fisher King', 'Dead Poets Society' and 'Good Will
Hunting'.  He makes films for the serious, the not so serious and the
downright whimsical.  Even a guest spot of television's 'Homicide' is
something over looked by a lot of people as the measure of just how good
Robin Williams can be.  With the success of 'Apollo 13', Tom Hanks went on
to involve himself with a study of the space program with the series
entitled 'From the Earth to the Moon'.  I would like to see Robin Williams
dive into something close to his heart.  Perhaps host a documentary of some
of pop culture's greatest comedians or star in a bio pick of a real life
comedian, something that would gain him even more respect than he's already
earned from playing real life characters in films like 'Patch Adams' and
'Awakenings'.

OUT OF 5 > * * * 1/2

Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
http://www.cgocable.net/~wfrith/movies.htm

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* * * * * - a must see
* * * * 1/2 - don't miss it
* * * * - an excellent film
* * * 1/2 - a marginal recommendation
* * * - can't quite recommend it
* * 1/2 - don't recommend it
* * - avoid it
* 1/2 - avoid it seriously
* - avoid it AT ALL COSTS
1/2 - see it at your own risk
zero - may be hazardous to your health