Mechanical Love

Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo's Mechanical Love takes viewers into the world of robotics for a thought-provoking glimpse at the kinds of relationships humans can form with machines. To Mrs. Körner, a nursing home resident in Germany, her furry robotic seal Paro is superior to a live animal, because she can turn it off and on, yet the creature still responds to stimuli and provides some much-needed companionship. Körner enthuses, “It doesn't matter whether it's real. This is even better.” Unfortunately, her fellow residents find Paro's whimpering irritating and her attendants aren't convinced that an imitation pet is such a great idea. But Japanese inventor Dr. Takanori Shibata thinks of his creation Paro as a therapeutic robot. Mechanical Love alternates between Körner, Shibata, and Osaka University's Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, who has created a series of “geminoids”—androids resembling specific individuals—including amazingly lifelike doppelgängers of himself and his daughter Lisa. When Lisa meets her geminoid, she acknowledges the similarity, but also admits, “I'm scared.” Clearly, human androids will need to evolve further before being able to provide as much comfort as the new animal robots, but Mechanical Love effectively raises that possibility in a film that may be nonfiction, but feels as if it could have sprung from the minds of sci-fi scribes Philip K. Dick or Brian Aldiss. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)