Hard to imagine writing a review of Gulliver’s Travels when it first appeared 300 years ago without ruining the effect of surprise–and of comedy.
So it is with I’m Your Man, the German “What If?” film now playing in arts cinemas near you.
While Gulliver landed among larger and smaller breeds of people, archeologist Alma Felser finds–and eventually loses–herself among humanoid robots and holograms. On the surface, the comedy is as clear and pervasive as “the mountain lakes” to which Tom compares Alma’s eyes on their first date.
It’s also as deep as her first question to him: “Do you believe in God?”
Inescapable is the larger question of just how far we are willing to pursue technology that satisfies all our needs, even those needs, yes, that need. Get too caught up on that, and you’ll miss the more subtle wit and irony that recalls 2007’s Lars and the Real Girl.
Satire has always taken that risk. When Swift wrote his “Modest Proposal” to solve both the population and hunger problems in London by cooking newborn babies, many, taking him literally, were outraged. I wouldn’t be surprised if others thought it a cook book.
To be fair, writer-director Maria Schrader makes an enticing case for the side on which we would rather not be. As a result, the film is Hamlet’s question.
No way you’ll miss the message aimed at workaholics, and it is a nice touch that Alma’s obsession digs into ancient carvings and hieroglyphics that show proof of poetry and lyrics as early as 2,700 BC.
I’m Your Man leaves you talking, as happened last night among patrons on the sidewalk outside the Screening Room. Conversations charged with both amusement and alarm.
My age affords me far more amusement than alarm–until I get home, tune in a baseball game, and see a commercial for a car in which the driver can daydream to the point of waving her arms in the air and closing her eyes while technology takes her racing safely down the highway.
Not long ago, that would be the opening for a dire warning. Today, it’s a selling point. I’m Your Man asks if we still know the difference.
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Playing at the Newburyport Screening Room through Thursday, Oct. 21. Check for times:
Mouth of the River 