Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
With his wife out sick, a struggling father brings home a lifelike AI, only to have his self-aware new help want everything her new family has to offer... Like the affection of her owner and she'll kill to get it.
Subservience treads very familiar 'rogue AI' domestic thriller territory without adding meaningful twists to the genre. The plot is a fairly predictable escalation from helpful android to murderous obsessive, reminiscent of countless prior entries (The Stepford Wives, M3GAN, etc.), and the motivations remain thin. Acting is serviceable but unremarkable, with performances that don't elevate the material beyond its genre-exercise roots. Cinematography is competent and occasionally stylish in its sterile domestic framing, earning a slight edge above average. Novelty is low given how thoroughly the premise has been explored — the film offers little distinctive in concept, voice, or execution. The ending resolves predictably without resonance or surprise, consistent with the film's overall by-the-numbers approach.