We live in the midst of collective anxiety created by the dangers of robots and Artificial Intelligence. Jobs are disappearing or are under threat, AI applications and robots are increasingly present in our lives and not only do they threaten to become smarter and more powerful than us, but it seems that we have developed or are about to develop an addiction to them, even more so than the addiction to the phone screens that have already taken over our lives. What better way to fight these anxieties than with laughter – that is, comedy and satire? ‘A Wonderful World‘ (‘Un monde merveilleux‘ is the original title) by French director (debuting in feature films) Giulio Callegari manages to relax us for 78 minutes without detaching from the problems of the day, which he treats with lightness and humor.
We are in one of the possible near futures. In France (but apparently not in Spain or Portugal) robots have replaced humans in most productive or service activities, from school teachers to elderly care workers. The exception is the police work where only humans are hired. Almost everyone has a robot that takes care of their personal health and well-being, their children’s lessons and their diet or cooking. An exception is Max, who is a kind of anti-robot anarchist who, after losing her job, is forced to resort to… stealing robots together with her daughter Paula to survive. Paula is taken out of the robotized school and her mother takes care of her education – from math lessons to stealing food or petrol. As bad luck would have it, a robot stolen from a nursing home is an old model (T-zero, hence his name Théo) that can no longer be resold. Théo is nice, full of goodwill, but a bit naive and a bit clumsy. When Théo is caught stealing from a supermarket, the authorities decide to take away Max’s maternal rights. Max and Théo will embark on the road to find and recover Paula. Between the robotophobic anarchist and the robot who is ready to do almost anything to make her happy, the relationship evolves.
The script – which Giulio Callegari is a co-author of – succeeds better in terms of details. The comic situations and funny lines keep the audience’s attention constantly awake. The narative thread is quite predictable, however, and I had the feeling that I had already seen similar variations of the story about the interactions between humans and robots in at least ten films. Callegari and his colleagues, however, had the good inspiration not to unnecessarily lengthen the movie. The 78 minutes that ‘Un monde merveilleux‘ lasts are at the lower limit of the duration of a feature film these days, but they are a consistent 78 minutes. The director chose not to use computer effects in order to bring to screen the robots, so the role of T-zero/Théo is played by an actress. I don’t know if the reason was low budget or ideology, but the result is more than satisfactory. Théo is funny – in the tradition of R2-D2 – and in the end he manages to create emotion. Blanche Gardin, for whom the role of Max was apparently written, is excellent. I read that she is a specialist in the roles women in depression – here she has the chance to fight back. ‘Un monde merveilleux‘ is a small and effective film, which manages to amuse us and to make us think without forcing the score in any direction.