Wifelike falls very close to the world of The Stepford Wives but manages to also grab hold of its own footing that offers frights in a different direction. It takes us to a future where robots are created to become a human’s significant other. Of course, dangers exist with such an option. Especially in this dystopia where a resistance fights to keep machines self-aware and to not fall into total slavery.
The official synopsis for Wifelike goes like this:
A grieving detective in the near-future (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) hunts down criminals who trade artificial humans on the black market. In the fight to end AI exploitation, an underground resistance attempts to infiltrate him by sabotaging the programming of the artificial human assigned as his companion (Elena Kampouris) to behave like his late wife. She begins to question her reality as memories of a past life begin to surface in a world where nothing is as it seems.
Wifelike also enters bleak Black Mirror territory in which you are able to continue a loved one’s life through means of AI and robots. We all know how these things turn out though and they never work out for the lonely souls attempting to use them.
Elena Kampouris who plays the companion in the film is one of these actresses I have seen in more and more films as of late. The actress played a great role in The Smith’s centric film Shoplifters of the World. Since then, her career has been growing. She has been excellent and it looks like she continues exploring interesting roles here.
Wifelike lands in theaters July 19 and arrives on digital beginning August 12.