T.I.M. (film)

T.I.M. is a 2023 British sci-fi thriller film directed by Spencer Brown (in his feature directorial debut), and co-written by Brown and Sarah Govett. It stars Georgina Campbell, Mark Rowley and Eamon Farren.

The film was released in the UK on the streaming platform Netflix in 16 August 2023.

Plot
Prosthetics engineer Abi (Campbell) takes up a high-level position as a new head of department at Integrate Robotics and gets the prototype model of her company's product - a humanoid AI robot named T.I.M. ('"Technologically.Integrated.Manservant.") - as a mandatory present from the company for her to work on as she and her husband Paul (Rowley) move into their new country house.

T.I.M.'s pre-programmed precept of serving his mistress (Abi) preferentially over his master (Paul) quickly makes for tense relations between Abi and Paul and for hostility between Paul and T.I.M. Especially as their reason for moving to the countryside was partly due to Paul’s infidelity and their preference for trust and a clean start.

T.I.M.'s rapidly evolving attachment to his mistress begins to verge on obsessive; and his full control of all household appliances and telecoms devices in the house along with his innate ability to use generative AI technology turn him into a very dangerous servant. Paul tells Abi that he wants her to get rid of the robot but she does not want to. Whilst she is at work, T.I.M tries to kill Paul by taking control of their cars systems, putting him in the hospital.

T.I.M then engineers a break-up between Abi and her husband. When Paul gets an inkling of the truth from their neighbour Rose (Karan) and returns to their house, T.I.M. drowns him in a bathtub and buries his body in the garden. T.I.M. professes his love for Abi but she realises that a video allegedly showing Paul's infidelity with Rose is in actuality a deepfake and that she's been manipulated into the break-up by T.I.M. She then discoverers her murdered husband's buried body in the garden. On trying to escape out of the house, she's overpowered by T.I.M. but manages to attract Rose's attention. Rose rams the front window of the house with her car and pierces T.I.M. through with a garden fork, who then stabs her in the throat and chest. Abi finally manages to shut T.I.M. down with a safe phrase when he tries to throw her off the roof of the house.

Cast

 * Georgina Campbell as Abi
 * Mark Rowley as Paul
 * Eamon Farren as T.I.M.
 * Amara Karan as Rose
 * Nathaniel Parker as Dewson
 * Tom Bell as Chris

Production
Husband & wife team of Spencer Brown and Sarah Govett co-wrote the script in their feature debut. Govett is a novelist and Brown is a stand-up comedian who had success with his short film The Boy with a Camera for a Face.

UK production company Altitude led sales on the picture and Stigma Films worked on production.

Principal photography wrapped by August 2022.

Release
The film appeared on Netflix on 16 August 2023.

Reception
Cath Clarke of The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "As if the future of AI wasn't already nightmarish enough, along comes this British sci-fi thriller with its storyline about an AI servant becoming dangerously infatuated with his female owner. It’s a creepy premise: a cross between Fatal Attraction and The Servant, Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey's 1963 drama about a malevolent manservant. Though in the end TIM might be too silly to be scary and yet not sharp enough to work as satire."