Subservience (2024)

January 7, 2025 12:34 PM

In the near future, struggling father Nick (Michele Morrone), buys Alice (Megan Fox), a domestic AI robot, to run the household and care for two small children, while his wife Maggie (Madeline Zima), is in hospital awaiting a heart transplant.

… But the situation soon intensifies when Alice develops an obsessive attachment to Nick. Driven by a newfound sense of loyalty, Alice becomes determined to eliminate what she perceives as the true threat to his happiness: his family.

Tagline: “She's In Your Home. She's In Your Head. She's In Control”

50% Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by S.K. Dale, Till Death (2021).

JustWatch

posted by edithkeeler (4 comments total)

My wife and I watched this a few weeks back. She's a connoisseur of terrible movies and even for her this one was beyond the pale.
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:05 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]

I really wish more people would put Megan Fox in *good* movies. She’s talented!
posted by Mr. Excellent at 4:30 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

how much of this movie works in a very specific way?

because the trailer really looks like:
- Megan Fox is conventionally attractive
- husband is a good guy but how can he help himself, MeganFoxBot is so darn attractive
- uhoh, Fatal Attraction

like that?
posted by ginger.beef at 12:48 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Someone on the internet called this “Fatal A.I.ttraction.” And they’re not wrong. Alice, much like Glenn Close’s Alex in “Fatal Attraction,” was arguably provoked into limerence/ crazymaking behavior by the weirdly inappropriate emotionality/Breadcrumbing behavior pattern of the unfaithful married man… who would do anything except Go To Therapy. I side-eyed Nick’s insistence Alice watch “Casablanca” with him and erase her prior knowledge of it. Sir, your wife is critically ill and your children need you, and that’s how you are choosing to cope with life? Had Nick not done the emotional affairing, TCM & chill with the robot nanny schtick, well it wouldn’t have been a thriller.

Megan Fox is incredibly talented, yes! I loved every minute of her performance as Alice. For me, Fox’s Alice was up there with two of my all-time favorite cinematic performances of androids: Brent Spiner’s Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Michael Fassbender’s David in Prometheus.

A review I saw said this could have been a cult classic if it were smarter and less predictable, and I agree. If you liked “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “M3GAN” and “The Crush” (also with a limerent object named Nick), and the game Detroit: Become Human (a lot was borrowed here, including the little girl naming the AI Alice after “Alice In Wonderland”), then maybe give this a watch.
posted by edithkeeler at 4:11 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]