I came across this movie on Netflix streaming movies. At about 90 minutes long it is just right. Set in the future when robots are fairly common, filmed mostly in the mountains of Switzerland in the winter, a snowy village in a valley surrounded by mountains. The language is Spanish with English subtitles.
I really like this movie, it is about family and friends more than about robots. But the lead billing goes to Daniel Brühl as Alex Garel, a very creative robot designer who left a project unfinished some 10 years earlier. Now he has returned to the town and to the institute, finding his former girlfriend married to his brother, but he has not lost his feelings for her.
The couple has a child, young Spanish actress Claudia Vega as Eva. The title of the movie is "Eva" so we know it will be about her. Alex first encounters her when he is looking for a bright, curious child to model his new project after, to give this new robot a mind that is interesting. So he asks Eva to help him even before he finds out whose child she is.
Yes, the robots are fun to watch, even the robotic cat that follows Alex everywhere. But the story is really about relationships and Alex coming to grips with some issues left undone.
SPOILERS FOLLOW: As the story moves forward I began to suspect that Eva was really Alex's child, she looked more like him and had his curiosity. But the bigger surprise is about 20 minutes from the end when Eva falls non-responsive in the snow as her mother is looking for her. She is actually a robot, the project his girlfriend finished after Alex left. Mom revives her with a new power cell but when Eva discovers she really is a robot she pushes her mom who then slides down and falls maybe 100 feet into the snow below. She dies in the hospital, Alex is left to care for Eva and decides she cannot continue on, so he says the code for all robots, "What do you see when you close your eyes?" and she falls non-responsive.
I really like this movie, it is about family and friends more than about robots. But the lead billing goes to Daniel Brühl as Alex Garel, a very creative robot designer who left a project unfinished some 10 years earlier. Now he has returned to the town and to the institute, finding his former girlfriend married to his brother, but he has not lost his feelings for her.
The couple has a child, young Spanish actress Claudia Vega as Eva. The title of the movie is "Eva" so we know it will be about her. Alex first encounters her when he is looking for a bright, curious child to model his new project after, to give this new robot a mind that is interesting. So he asks Eva to help him even before he finds out whose child she is.
Yes, the robots are fun to watch, even the robotic cat that follows Alex everywhere. But the story is really about relationships and Alex coming to grips with some issues left undone.
SPOILERS FOLLOW: As the story moves forward I began to suspect that Eva was really Alex's child, she looked more like him and had his curiosity. But the bigger surprise is about 20 minutes from the end when Eva falls non-responsive in the snow as her mother is looking for her. She is actually a robot, the project his girlfriend finished after Alex left. Mom revives her with a new power cell but when Eva discovers she really is a robot she pushes her mom who then slides down and falls maybe 100 feet into the snow below. She dies in the hospital, Alex is left to care for Eva and decides she cannot continue on, so he says the code for all robots, "What do you see when you close your eyes?" and she falls non-responsive.