Directed and written by Josh Janowicz, the trailer for the 2019 film ‘Life Like’ looked too intriguing to be ignored. It’s about a couple Sophie & Julian who inherit a LOT of money when Julian’s father dies.
Addison Timlin who plays Sophie is very pretty for the role but her character arc is absolutely flat and annoying. While Julian (Drew Van Acker) struggles to take over his father’s business, Sophie has no job or ambitions whatsoever and does nothing to make his life easier. The bratty bitch instead fires all their house helps & then expects her husband to abandon work and rush back home to mow the lawn. Seriously?
Julian ends up buying a robot that is eerily human-looking to help Sophie in maintaining their mansion, without the guilt of having a real human work for her. The robot is called ‘Henry’ and does everything around the house to keep the couple happy.
Steven Strain who plays Henry is quite convincing as a robot that keeps evolving based on his interactions with his human owners. The fact that he is so ‘life-like’ begins to create problems for the couple as Sophie is unable to treat him like a machine. Again, I can’t emphasize enough how unlikable her character is.
Aesthetically, the film is very pleasing to the eye, most of the cast is very good-looking and move around in beautiful spaces. Everything is so perfect on the surface, that you sense that there are deeper problems lurking around the corner.
There is a very unexpected twist in the end, and it’s unexpected because it just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the narrative. I will have to give a big spoiler to explain what the problem is, but instead I’ll just say this – the twist makes the entire film look like a LOAD OF BULLSHIT. Too many loopholes and questions begin to pop up in your head and one wonders why the director didn’t think of them at all?
The film is bearable only because of the combined charm of Drew Van Acker & Steven Strain, otherwise it’s just a forgettable below average film.