"Ninety-three percent of women dream of something like this." "Guess which group I belong in."
I'm Your Man is a 2021 German romantic dramedy science fiction film directed and co-written by Maria Schrader, starring Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert.
Dr. Alma Feiser (Eggert), an archaeologist at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, reluctantly agrees to live for three weeks with Tom (Stevens), a humanoid robot designed to be her perfect man. What follows is an exploration of love, loneliness, and what it means to be alive.
Tropes used in this film:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Other than a handful of breakthroughs (realistic holograms, "brain scanning", and robots nearly indistinguishable from humans), you would have a hard time telling the world of the movie from our own. Interestingly all of these breakthroughs are tied to a single company so it's possible they're not in widespread use.
- Amicable Exes: Enough so for Alma to be invited to her ex's housewarming party.
- Androids Are People, Too: Explored. The reason Alma is pressured into participating in the trial is that her boss is on an ethics committee deciding whether to give the new androids human rights. Interestingly none of the androids express any strong opinion one way or the other.
- Artificial Intelligence: Tom. Created from "brain scans" of thousands of women, including Alma, He is intended to be her ideal mate, and flummoxed that she doesn't seem to want him to fulfill his purpose. Anyone not told otherwise readily accepts him as a human.
- But Not Too Foreign: The in-universe explanation for Dan Stevens speaking German with an English accent. According to the brain scan, Alma is attracted to men who are foreign, but not so foreign as to be exotic; to a German woman, an Englishman checks all the boxes.
- Comically Missing the Point: Alma tells the relationship evaluator that as Tom is designed only to do what makes her happy, there is no conflict and it's not a real relationship. The evaluator then asks Tom if he would increase the level of conflict in order to make Alma happier.
- Consummate Liar: Tom doesn't go out of his way to do it, but he's capable of coming up with seamless, elaborate lies off the top of his head.
- Hollywood Atheist: To some degree. Although she's been an atheist since she was a child, before any of the life events that soured her on idealism, she is definitely the sort of hardened cynic you expect from a Hollywood Atheist. It goes hand in hand with her views on love.
- Info Dump: At first, Tom has a habit of offering a great deal of highly specific information when prompted.
- Machine Monotone: Played for Laughs to tease Alma's boss.
- Robots Think Faster: Tom seems to have built-in calculator and internet search functions and can use them with as much effort as a human accessing memories.
- Robotic Reveal: The Employee who introduces Alma to the experiment and serves as the main point of contact is revealed to also be a robot.
- Robotic Spouse: The purpose of Tom and the other androids is "lifelong companionship". Although this could mean a lifelong friend, sex and romance seem to be the default assumptions.
- Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids!: Alma seems to believe this, though it's clear she didn't always.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: A heavy, middle-aged man, Dr. Stuber, has a companion robot similar to Tom named Chloe.
