I Am Mother (2019) – I Am Mother (2019) – User Reviews – IMDb

7

/10

Warning: Spoilers

Contains spoilers

The movie I am Mother (Sputore, 2019) is set in a post-apocalyptic time. In this movie there are three main characters. Mother, who is a droid, voice by Rose Byrne. Daughter is played by Clara Rugaard and Woman is played by Hillary Swank. In this Sci-Fi film, Mother raises Daughter to produce an “ethically good human” after the destruction of all other humans. This was to begin the repopulating of the Earth. Once Daughter is a teenager, she discovers that she is not the only human on the planet. She rescues the wounded woman who finds her way to the bunker. During the time that Woman is in the bunker with Daughter and Mother, Daughter hears very different stories from Woman about what has been happening outside the protective walls of the bunker. There are no consistencies with what Daughter has grown up learning from Mother and what Woman says. Daughter becomes very curious about the differences. She does some investigating on her own and finds out that she was not the first human child that Mother produced Daughter gets frightened and decides that she should escape the bunker with Woman. After the escape from the bunker, Daughter discovers that Woman has also lied to her about outside. Daughter goes back to the bunker to get Brother, who is a newborn. Daughter then destroys the droid that raised her. Mother decides that Woman was a failed experiment and kills her in the end.
The theme to I am Mother questions who has the right to decide what makes an ethically good human. One scene that comes to mind is when Daughter is in class and Mother brings up the question about five people needing an organ transplant and patient six is a match for all five. Does Daughter, as the doctor, treat the sixth patient to let that person live or not treat the patient and instead use the organs to save the other five patients? Daughter replied that she would help the many instead of only the one patient. After that, Mother asks what if she where the doctor and a match for all five patients. Would she sacrifice herself to help the other five patients? Daughter replied that she would suffer harm to aid the others. Mother is pleased with the answers that Daughter gives.
The next scene that deals with what makes an ethically good human is one surrounding Woman’s decision-making skills. While in the bunker, Woman lies to Daughter saying that there are other humans in the mines and that the two of them should go and be with the other humans. She lies to Daughter to get her to leave the safety of the bunker so she would not have to be alone. While escaping the bunker, Woman threatens to harm Daughter if Mother does not let them out of there. Once the two women reach where Woman lives, Daughter questions where all the other people are. Woman admits to lying to save herself. At the end of the movie, a droid, with the voice of Mother, comes into the shed where the woman is and tells her she is no longer needed and kills her.
The action that makes Mother realize that Daughter passed her test of being an ethically good human was when Daughter returned to the bunker to care for Brother. Daughter selflessly gave up her freedom to come back and care for him. Because of this, Mother gives Daughter the freedom to decide how she is going to raise the embryos without any guidance.
A few things that I had noticed about the lighting in the movie is that in the bunker it is primarily dark until Daughter is born. This symbolizes the dark days of the end of humanity. Daughter wears brightly colored clothes and has made brightly colored pictures on the walls. To me, the use of bright colors symbolized the hope of a brighter future for Daughter and the rest of humankind after they start the repopulation process. Once out of the bunker, the lighting remains dismal and dark showing how mankind has ruined the earth. The sky is dark, and cloud- covered; the sun is barely visible. It is not until they get to the ocean that you see the colors of the mountains and surroundings at the ocean. They are not vivid, but you can tell that they are different colors.
Another film element that is in the movie are the internal conflicts of Daughter. The main conflict is her loyalty to Mother and her family or the Woman who has made it into the bunker. Daughter finds out that some of the stories that Mother has told her are lies. For example, the destruction of humans was brought on by the humans themselves by going to war. Also, in Daughter’s investigation she finds out that she was not the first human created by Mother. Between the things Daughter has learned from her investigation and stories Woman tells Daughter decides to leave with Woman. When Daughter and Woman get to the storage depot, Daughter finds out that Woman has lied to her also. Since this has happened, Daughter decides to return to the bunker to raise Brother.
The movie I am Mother does an excellent job of portraying what the world could be like if it were to go into a post-apocalyptic setting. The lighting and drab color pallet used in the film showed how gloomy the world would be. The scenery used to show the desolation of the Earth gave you a feeling of hopelessness. The bright colors used for Daughter’s wardrobe gave a sense of hope that she could hold the key to mankind’s future.

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