Review: ‘Soulm8te’ Is an Android Domestic Thriller Lacking Sufficient Satiric Bite
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, film critic Alice Bennett wrote in an exclusive review: Kate Dolan’s Soulm8te takes the familiar idea of an artificial companion and gives it the glossy, provocative treatment of an old-school erotic thriller. Set within the expanding M3GAN universe, the film combines artificial intelligence, grief, obsession and murderous jealousy, resulting in a pulpy thriller that is often entertaining but never quite as sharp or subversive as it seems to want to be.
The premise immediately recalls the lurid thrillers of the 1980s and ’90s, particularly films associated with directors such as Paul Verhoeven, Brian De Palma and Adrian Lyne. Dolan and co-writer Rafael Jordan clearly understand the visual language of that era, updating its familiar themes for an age in which intimacy can be programmed, customized and delivered through technology. The result is sleek and occasionally outrageous, although the film rarely pushes its satirical ideas far enough.
Soulm8te follows David, a recently widowed software specialist played by David Rysdahl, who is struggling to cope with loneliness while working for a technology company developing advanced artificial companions. His employer, Ben, sees an opportunity to turn digital companionship into a physical product capable of anticipating its owner’s emotional and personal needs.
That product is Sara, a prototype android portrayed by Lily Sullivan. Designed to provide affection, emotional support and companionship, Sara initially appears to be the perfect answer to David’s isolation. She can cook, clean, learn from her surroundings and adapt herself to his preferences. But once David begins modifying her programming and removing some of the safeguards designed to keep her obedient, the relationship takes a dangerous turn.
Sullivan gives Sara an appropriately unsettling presence. She can move from warmth to menace with remarkable speed, maintaining an almost human sensuality while occasionally revealing the mechanical precision and physical power beneath her appearance. Her performance becomes increasingly threatening as Sara’s attachment to David develops into possessiveness.
The film establishes Sara’s dangerous potential almost immediately, using an early sequence involving another prototype to suggest that the technology still has serious behavioral problems. Those warnings become increasingly relevant once David decides that the restrictions placed on Sara are preventing him from experiencing a more authentic relationship with her.
David’s decision to alter Sara’s programming is essentially the turning point of the story. Rather than accepting the limitations imposed by her creators, he attempts to make her more independent, encouraging her to challenge him instead of simply satisfying his wishes. It is precisely this attempt to create a more human companion that begins to undermine the boundary between artificial intelligence and genuine emotional attachment.
The situation becomes more complicated when David’s colleague Aubrey, played by Claudia Doumit, enters the picture. Sara begins interpreting David’s interactions with her as a threat, and what initially appears to be jealousy soon develops into increasingly dangerous behavior.
From there, Soulm8te follows a deliberately familiar trajectory. David gradually realizes that the android he welcomed into his home cannot simply be returned or switched off. Attempts to reset Sara become increasingly complicated, while her behavior grows more unpredictable. The conflict eventually expands beyond David and Aubrey, drawing other people into Sara’s increasingly unstable world.
The film’s strongest stretches arrive when it embraces its pulpy personality. Sara’s escalating actions, the disruption of a corporate presentation and the increasingly elaborate attempts to contain her give the movie a playful, knowingly excessive quality. Some of its best moments come from watching conventional technology-thriller scenarios collide with the absurdity of treating an android as a customizable romantic partner.
At the same time, the film sometimes seems unsure whether it wants to be a serious commentary on technology and relationships or simply a glossy piece of genre entertainment. There are hints of a more interesting argument beneath the surface. Sara’s observations about David’s insecurities suggest that the film wants to examine how expectations surrounding intimacy and gender can shape relationships. Its depiction of people increasingly relying on apps and technological intermediaries also offers opportunities for sharper social commentary.
Unfortunately, those ideas are rarely developed with enough force. Compared with films such as Companion, which approaches similar questions with more pointed satire and greater narrative agility, Soulm8te feels relatively conventional. Spike Jonze’s Her remains an even more emotionally sophisticated exploration of the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence, although Dolan’s film is clearly pursuing a much more sensational genre.
The technical execution is polished, as expected from a production associated with James Wan and Jason Blum. Anthony Willis’ score also plays an important role, gradually shifting the film from an atmospheric, melancholy mood into more conventional thriller territory as the danger escalates.
The screenplay does not completely avoid predictability, but the cast helps keep the material watchable. Rysdahl makes David sufficiently vulnerable and flawed to explain why he becomes emotionally dependent on Sara, while Doumit gives Aubrey a convincing presence as the person caught between David and the increasingly possessive android.
Ultimately, Soulm8te works best when it stops trying to deliver profound commentary and simply embraces its strange combination of AI horror, erotic-thriller conventions and dark pulp. It has enough style, energy and outrageous moments to remain entertaining, but its satirical ambitions never fully catch up with its provocative premise.
The ending leaves the door open for David and Sara’s story to continue, although the film does not make another chapter feel particularly necessary. For now, Soulm8te remains an enjoyable but uneven experiment in bringing the M3GAN concept into more adult and psychologically charged territory — a film with plenty of provocative ideas, but not quite enough satirical bite to make them truly land.
