Film Review: Marjorie Prime

In our current technological age, society always seems to be searching for the next great advancement which will improve the quality of our lives. This film explores this premise, asking how technology can be used to meet the most basic of human needs, and whether it is ethical to do so.

This film stars Lois Smith as 85-year-old Majorie, a woman in the last years of her life battling with dementia. Her reliance on her family for care has increased since the passing of her husband, Walter, causing her to be exasperated and intolerable towards her daughter and her husband. This atmosphere of pressure causes her family to purchase a futuristic artificial intelligence system that claims to be able to save fading memories by providing comfort and familiarity.

The system does this by displaying itself as a holographic version of Majorie’s dead spouse, dubbed ‘Walter Prime’ (Jon Hamm). It works by learning memories from the people it speaks to, inquisitively asking questions about the deceased’s likes and dislikes, and most eerily repeating “I will remember that now,” after being corrected on pieces of information it has made mistakes remembering. Like an updating computer, the system is constantly evolving, using conversation to become an increasingly authentic version of the deceased.

Perhaps most interestingly, the technology can also be manipulated. In one scene, ‘Walter Prime’ relays the story of the couple's proposal to Majorie, who appears dissatisfied with the outcome. Majorie asks for him improve the story the next time he tells it to her as she prefers to think of Walter as more romantic than he was. Here we see Majorie changing the narrative of her own life, replacing her faded memories with better ones, actively reshaping the retrospection of the life she lived, in order to gain control over her dimming existence.

The film's tone is undoubtedly grey and sombre, set to the sound of sorrowful orchestral music and featuring scenes that interchange with sudden cuts to black. It portrays the future as a place where no real living takes place, just a series of events instead. The house itself alludes to this feeling of emotionlessness, a modern beach house with sleek furnishings, but the nods to futuristic features are kept to a minimum, like subtle uses of see-through mobile phones.

Although it tackles the issues around technology, the core of the film surrounds the complications of family dynamics. We see this specifically in the rocky mother and daughter relationship between Majorie and Tess (Geena Davis) who appears angered and disturbed by the concept of allowing her mother to talk to a 3D projection of her dead father. It also looks at the tensions that occur in lengthy marriages, like the pressures of becoming carers, a loss of intimacy and hidden drinking problems. 

As is the case with many independent films tackling an intelligent subject matter, the tempo of the film is slow. But eventually, the storyline does gather pace, evolving and shifting between protagonists quite quickly.

Although a melancholy look at relationships, this film poses questions about how technology could be used to help subside some of the most humanistic problems we face. Overall this movie makes for an interesting watch about the extent to which technology can fill voids and fix the flawed parts of our lives, which although sometimes falling victim to some highbrow tropes, ultimately comes together to create a thought-provoking film.