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the audience applauded

Memorable, crazy movie

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

'Marjorie Prime' can be considered a science fiction film of a particular kind. The director of the film is Michael Almereyda, is 58 years old and without being one of Hollywood's most celebrated names, he has a diverse and exciting cinematographic record that includes action and vampire movies' a 'Hamlet' placed in New York City today and a fairly successful romantic story happening in a New Orleans who is trying to get back to normal after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. This story is about a well-placed family that lives in the near future somewhere on the ocean, and uses hologram and avatars technology to bring a younger incarnation of the long-dead husband to an old and Alzheimer's disease affected mother, trying to bring back from past memories about events and experiences.A lot and very little is known about this terrible neuro-degenerative disease. Diagnosis and symptoms are becoming better known in the smallest details. The population of the globe is aging, and with it the percentage of affected people has grown spectacularly over the last decades. The exact causes are unknown or not elucidated to the end. Heredity plays an important role in 70% of cases, but it is not the only source. Treatments do not yet exist, not even in the near future world imagined in 'Marjorie Prime'. What is proposed at the beginning of the main heroine film is not a healing treatment, but a slowing down of the advance of the disease and an attempt to temporarily remedy the situation by refreshing the memory. The appearance of seemingly real people, frozen in time at a certain age, does not, however, remain without impact on other members of the family. As time passes, other family members begin to need the avatars company. Biological mechanisms continue to do their job, while their virtual partners remain immune to disease or aging. But not in their capabilities. The screenwriters equipped the avatars in 'Marjorie Prime' with cognitive expansion. In other words, avatars learn, enrich their information about their own past (in fact, about the people they represent virtually), and thus improve their interaction and relationships with other people and with each other.As the action progresses, the questions that we can ask multiply. In fact, what are we, people? body? thoughts? an entity that some call soul? Or are we just the memories we leave behind? I will not reveal more because I do not want to take the pleasure of watching those who decide to watch this movie. It can be interpreted as a parable. Perhaps it is about the perennial character of human beings, or of mankind itself. In a world where wealth is getting better and acquiring features that include learning and self-improvement, is there room for people? Because the robots have the potential to overcome the goals we have created, to help people and expand their physical and intellectual forces, and become competitors to the planet's limited resources. When is this threshold crossed? Perhaps it is actually about the perennial character of the human species in another form of incarnation? The film has an end that some will find pessimistic, but I'm not one of them. From the cinefil's point of view, I admired the clever writing story (adaptation of Jordan Harrison's play) and the exceptional play of Lois Smith, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis. Recommended!

This film tells the story of a family who uses a technology to bring back their deceased relatives using an interactive holographic technology.The first ten minutes of "Marjorie Prime" is interesting, especially when the nature of the man is revealed. However, the remainder of the film is just boring talks. They talk for a long time at length, and nothing comes out of the conversations. Nothing happens in the film, except an increasing number of holographic images. I don't get the point of the story.

Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Jordan Harrison's Pulizer Prize nominated play is an intriguing bit of sci-fi lite. MARJORIE PRIME begins almost as if it were a ghost story. Marjorie (a superb Lois Smith) is sitting with her deceased husband Walter Jon Hamm) for a chat. Marjorie is a very elderly and frail woman suffering the infirmaries of old age including bouts of severe memory loss. Walter is an A.I. Hologram (called a Prime) programmed to look and relate as her spouse. Significantly, Marjorie has chosen to be with the Walter of his 40-something appearance. In keeping with the A.I. theme, the Primes are set up to continually learn from the information that it is told, hears, sees and experiences in order to became more and more like the human it is replacing. Majorie's daughter Tess (Geena Davis) and son-in-law Jon (Tim Robbins) are also present in order to care for Marjorie - and, to advance Walter Prime's learning curve. At first, Tess and Jon's presence comes off as a bit of an intrusion in the Marjorie-Walter Prime futuristic ghost story, but, it soon develops that there are a couple of more complications that their presence is meant to convey. There are a couple of other minor characters, but, this is essentially a four person play, as befits its stage origins (Almereyda's attempts to 'open up' the adaptation are fairly minor and not all that effective save for some flashbacks). As the movie progresses, a few more layers are revealed. But, although there are some nice nuances, they don't always advance our understanding of the themes of memory and loss that are at the heart of the story. Some of the later revelations seem more redundant than illuminating. At a sparse 98 minutes (including credits) this is a case where the slim running time isn't long enough to explore its ambitions. Almereyda's screenplay does give greater depth to the sci-fi underpinnings than the play supposedly did. But, those expecting a straight sci-fi tale will likely be somewhat disappointed (even though it takes place in an unspecified future, everyone wears modern clothes, drive current-day cars etc. The only sci-fi accessory is a clear plastic card cellphone). But, those elements aren't at the heart of the movie. It's an engagingly intimate tale with a lovely central performance.

Saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2017 (website: iffr.com). It all started as a compelling and original premise, but I got lost underway about what it all meant story-wise speaking. A lot of talking, but I still don't know what makes everyone tick. On the other hand, we were made aware that manipulating the past is one of the prime issues at hand, once you are given the opportunity to re-make idealized versions of deceased relatives, and to even improve on them by planting memories that are not completely true to reality (every now and then we hear the words "I'll remember it now"). Could have been thought provoking, but I lost my interest halfway the running time.All in all, the actors are much better than the play they act in. The festival visitors ranked this movie a bit better than halfway at the 57th (out of 172) place for the audience award, with score 4.009 (out of 5).