Of all the movies that Megan Fox has done in the past few years, only one film, ’til Death’ that was released in 2021 was able to acquire appreciation. Director S.K. Dale was able to extract a worthy performance out of an actress who has not been a critics’ favorite.
In her never ending quest to partner with Dale’s Fox one more time, the two met up again for the AI thriller Subservience, where her unnatural acting as an actress is here sinned and calms down nicely when she is playing Alice, a highly sophisticated AI that has a single function o please whoever takes her home. Returning to a much campier and better executed concept than the one Dale presents here, namely last year’s M3GAN, it is not a mystery that a human figure is programmed to follow such a command literally. So when the good looking loser Nick (Michele Moroney is recognizably good looking and made a name for portraying a frighteningly naked character in the unpopular volume of sadistic icons about sex series the 365 Days films) buys her to help him run his house, it is unduly to wonder about her seriousness to perform her task of putting quite a few items into his throat.
All of this would be acceptable if Nick wasn’t married and one of the attractive maids he employs is his lover. He is married to Madeline Zima’s character, Maggie, who is currently hospitalized with a heart attack. Struggling to balance his construction occupation with taking care of their daughter and baby son with Maggie, Nick views Alice as the answer. Although, when viewing the scenario from Maggie’s perspective, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that he did buy the best looking model.
Up until the interval, which is approximately the mid point in the movie Subservience, the audience is able to observe a much more dramatic Call & Drama technique that Easel Nick and Maggie will have to go through following her sickness and which her young daughter and her mother now have to accept that she will likely not return home any time soon. As the girl gets involved in the household, she tries to make an effort to look after the children of Nick and Maggie Jones and when she lures Nick into making love to her, his actions somehow make sense. We do not endorse them, certainly, but his internal conflict stems from his uncertainty about whether his spouse will pull through the heart transplant, and Alice being aware that he is most contented when his blood and stress pressure are low due to sex, implies that there is a sort of psychological manipulation at play and this introduces the more fascinating discourse in the film.
But Subservience is also not that much deep in the long run subversively gone smart enough to self undermine the genre so. Rather, like many other films that feature self aware AI robotics, it degenerates into basic horror, where Alice irrevocably and willingly does all that she can to ensure that Nick receives the most pernicious forms of care as she sees fit. Maggie is not safe, and that is understandable, but the film even provocatively (and rather frighteningly) hints that Nick’s stress and need for control over his life would be satisfied if he killed his own kids, including some quite taut, mildly disturbing episodes where a toddler of Nick and Maggie’s is imperiled.
And in the end, that is what Subservience disappoints over all the most. It offers tantalizing glimpses to greater, intricacies which are distinctively left out from the picture, which does consider that its purpose is to be as trashy and vapid as it looks. And when the film appears to be in a position whereby this angle should be fully embraced fanatically, that being Fox as good as becoming Terminator, it does not ever appear to locate balance and grace that is needed to achieve aspirations of being a cult hit in the making.
When it comes to portraying actress Fox in films, I feel that there has been unfair treatment towards her. But there are a few parts that have been justly condemned, as when she has the material, she is a very nice face to have on screen, especially in comedies. If the film Subservience had tried harder to develop its satire, it could have been an appropriate partner for MEGAN which, in this sci fi project, executed what this film tried to take shortcuts in.
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