T.I.M. (2023)

T.I.M. (2023) Did Spencer Brown only direct this feature film? Well, yes!T.I.M. is a British sci-fi thriller directed by Spencer Brown, in his first feature as director, and co-written by Brown and Sarah Govett. The two are husband and wife. Govett is a novelist and Brown is a stand-up comedian who found success with his short film The Boy with a Camera for a Face. This film stars Georgina Campbell, Mark Rowley and Eamon Farren. The film was released in the UK on streaming platform Netflix on 16 August 2023.

The British are good at so many things. This film could perfectly be a Black Mirror spin-off.

Cath Clarke of The Guardian gave the film just two out of five stars, writing, ‘As if the future of AI wasn’t nightmarish enough already, this British sci-fi thriller arrives with its plot about an AI servant who becomes dangerously infatuated with its owner. It’s a chilling premise: a cross between Fatal Attraction and The Servant, Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey’s 1963 drama about a malevolent servant. Though in the end, TIM is perhaps too stupid to be scary and yet not sharp enough to work as satire.’

To each his own! For my part, I find this film better than M3GAN (2022) which itself is better than the Annabelle trilogy… and I could just go on and on! I think the main actors have all played in horror films.

As for Eamon Farren, you’d be forgiven for thinking he wasn’t an actor, but a robot, because he plays so well. This guy has always wanted to be an actor, ever since he started watching films. He never thought of a plan B, despite the advice of those around him. He credits his brother and actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman as his main influences and inspirations. He has been lucky enough to work with many people, including Vincent D’Onofrio, Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett. The year after T.I.M., he had the opportunity to play Satan, the devil himself, in Mary (2024), an epic biblical film.

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film. Of course, if you read the story before watching it, you get the feeling that everything is more or less predictable, that you already know roughly what’s going to happen. It remains to be seen how it will play out! Unease, infidelity, an intrusive robot, an attempt to start afresh, misunderstandings, lies, manipulation… everything is there to give the film enough ingredients to make for a stressful or entertaining time. Of course, we often put ourselves in the place of the protagonists and wonder what kind of cracks there might be in this kind of dream life. Because everything that makes you want to be there can have a very big downside.

Good suspense, lots of injustice in a film where nothing goes perfectly right or completely wrong. Including the ending which, unfortunately, becomes increasingly over-exaggerated and prevents the film from being a true masterpiece. It’s up to you to decide whether this is the kind of film you want to see or not.