On Prime Video, Shailene Woodley laughs in the futuristic comedy “The robot that looked like me”

2023-07-31 05:29:56

United States in the near future. Seemingly a model employee in his father’s real estate agency, Charles actually spends his days at home doing nothing. It’s that he has a robot that looks like him and that he sends to work in his place, but also to seduce young women. C2, the android, endowed with the manners of a perfect gentleman, takes care of all the approach maneuvers, Charles only disembarking at the moment of conclusion.

Everything goes well until the day the duo comes across Elaine who also has a double: E2. It is the latter who regularly goes to the pan while her mistress is showered with gifts by her lovers…

Adapted from the short story of the same name by the great American science fiction writer Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) – he was also the one who wrote the text that served as inspiration for Yves Boisset’s film “Le prix du danger” – this Prime Video production is at the crossroads of science fiction and romantic comedy. With a touch of trashy humor brought by the main actor, Jack Whitehall, who comes from stand-up.

A world where Kanye West is vice president

The film also lands a few political swipes, with Republicans and Donald Trump voters getting fired up regularly over the course of the story. We also learn, at the turn of a near-rape of a human by a robot, that Kanye West is vice-president! In short, great nonsense, but which often makes you smile, and even laugh.

More than Jack Whitehall, it is Shailene Woodley who – far from her serious roles in the “Divergent” saga, the “Big little lies” series or the excellent “Misanthrope” – pulls out of the game, displaying a comic dimension that we didn’t know him. Certainly not a great film, but an hour and a half of unpretentious entertainment is already not bad.

Editor’s note:

“The Robot Who Looked Like Me”, American science fiction comedy by Casper Christensen and Anthony Hines, with Shailene Woodley, Jack Whitehall, Nick Rutherford, Paul Rust… 1:33 a.m. On Prime Video.