Writer: Nicholas Kazan, based on a short story by Isaac Asimov and the expanded novel version by Robert Silverberg
Cast: Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Oliver Platt, Kiersten Warren
By the fourth decade of the 21st Century, robotics has developed to the point where functional androids are possible. NorthAm Robotics has a domestic model that will clean, cook, babysit the kids and generally act as a tin housekeeper.
The Martin family (Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Lindze Letherman) buys one such robot, which is immediately christened "Andrew." But Andrew (Robin Williams) is different from the rest of his mechanical siblings. Andrew is creative. Andrew has feelings. Andrew wants to be a real boy.
I sincerely doubt that either Isaac Asimov or Robert Silverberg would want to take credit for writing this piece of sentimental tripe. Indeed, any resemblance between this movie and any of Asimov's robot stories is purely coincidental. It is nothing more than another opportunity for Robin Williams to look painfully sincere and toss off one-liners that, in this case, fall flatter than last week's beer.
We'll overlook the fact that Andrew is designed to look like a plump version of the Tin Man. And, in case you missed the reference, another robot character later sings a few bars of "If I Only Had a Brain." We'll even forgive the annoying hydraulic squish he makes when he walks, as if a company that could develop a positronic brain couldn't manage a joint muffler.
What isn't acceptable is the way the question of what constitutes humanity is trivialized into a sappy love story. That's really all this movie is--two turgid, sleep-inducing hours of Andrew's search for a way to marry his first "Little Miss (Embeth Davidtz)," who really loved him but married somebody else because he was only a robot. Granted, once Andrew acquires a more realistic facade, courtesy of Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), Williams finally gets off some really funny lines, but that's just the problem. His character isn't a poignantly lonely android--it's Robin Williams pretending to be one. And therein lies the overall problem.
Chris Columbus and Robin Williams did a fantastic job with Mrs. Doubtfire, and no one can really blame them for trying to make lightning strike twice. Unfortunately, they've been trying to do it by using the same theme and just wrapping a new story around it, and all that results is a watered-down version of the original. In Bicentennial Man it is apparent Williams couldn't lose himself in his role, and so neither can we. We don't even really get to see Andrew's humanity develop. He basically arrives with it intact, and so Williams has nowhere to go with the part--and it shows.
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