Companion (#644)


Back home after a most enjoyable interlude away, I did what I always seem to be doing: I went to a movie, recalling that the total audience, aside from my companion and me, of the three movies we saw in New York, was three! And once again, after watching the thankfully only one hour and 37 minute spectacle, wondered what the heck I was doing here. Billed by the local theater as a mystery, thriller, horror/sci-fi, comedy, COMPANION, I guess, was some of those if you consider that comedy was pulling the leg of viewers (to use an ancient idiom). It did have a somewhat interesting premise—artificial intelligence able to create a robot love (sexual) partner imbued with whatever traits you want it to have. An attractive couple meet by chance in a supermarket and become romantically involved quickly. He takes her to a secluded home of a friend where his friends are partying and when things start getting weird, he explains to her that she's really a robot made-to-order for him, and things go downhill and get weirder from there, including a couple of very violent murders. The mystery description is easy to figure out: Why they made the movie in the first place. But everyone has his or her idea of what's good or not. You now know how I feel about Companion, but critics (93%) and audiences (90%) loved it.   Another mystery to me is how they could have liked it more than the three movies I recently praised!

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