There are spoilers ahead....
This is the story of a young woman who graduates from the space academy and heads off into the stars, while the robot parent who raised her after her mother passed away on a similar mission waits on earth for her return.
This film crushed the life out of me.
This film is not for kids. Kids will not get it. Adults will get it but may find its tale of fading memory in ourselves and loved ones heartbreaking on a level they may not want to deal with. This is an allegory about growing old, getting ill and the death of parents. Told largely as a memory play, most of the film follows the robot as it goes through its day remembering her human child. Memory is everything in this film and when that fades, even for a robot, what is left?
The film came into my life at not the best time as several friends and family have begun the slow slide into forgetfulness. The climax of the story where the robot essentially gives its happiest memories to her daughter in the only way she was capable before expiring broke me in ways that few pieces of art ever had. I desperately needed not to be in a theater full of children right before going to lunch with a friend. I needed to be in a room alone with a box of tissues where I could scream out the pain.(Writing this damn near broke me again).
At the same time, I need to say that the tale of the young girl is not up to the robot. Yes, it reveals how we go off and live our live and not fully engage with our parents while trying to cover the same ground, but the story of her stranding on a far-off world is just okay. Its not quite as well thought out as the stuff at home. But then again it isn’t what you are going to remember.
This is a film about ourselves and our parents asnd our memories. As a representation of life this film is as fine a film as has ever been made… it just may break your heart.
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