Cinequest Review: ‘A Hard Problem’
A Hard Problem is an engaging, thrilling and surprisingly nuanced take on the dangers of technology, anchored by an excellent performance from star John Berchtold.
There is something deeply wrong with Ian (John Berchtold). From the way he carries himself, way too prim and unbelievably proper, to the way he speaks, with an all too perfect speech pattern and pitch perfect delivery, you will immediately be able to tell that something is off, From the way other people interact with him, his sister Lisa (Jennifer Hasty) shunning him and refusing to interact with him, to the way he responds, with acceptance rather than indignation, you will notice right off the bat that something is not right.
Ian, as we soon come to find out, is not Ian at all, but an artificial machine designed to look, act and speak like the actual Ian, who lost his life to a terrible tragedy years ago. Commissioned by his grieving mother (Tacey Adams), much to the objections of his sister Lisa, this version of Ian bears an uncanny resemblance to the real thing except for one major difference – he doesn’t exactly age. After the death of their mother, Ian’s sister decides to shut down this artificial version of Ian once and for all – but not before he discloses the location of the real Ian’s ashes, which he seems to have hidden away in his mother’s house. Lisa decides to employ the services of Olivia (Catherine Haena Kim), who works for the company that designed and built the artificial version of Ian, in order to extract the truth from the robot but Olivia soon comes to find that all is not what it seems on the surface.
Marking the feature length directorial debut of filmmaking duo hazart, A Hard Problem is an engaging, thrilling and surprisingly nuanced take on a story that has been tackled before, most recently in an episode of smash hit series Black Mirror. What sets A Hard Problem aside from those projects, however, is hazart’s willingness to explore the moral and ethical dilemmas involved with the concept of bringing someone back to life, so to speak.
Through thoughtful, genuinely engrossing conversations and musings between the film’s characters, hazart, who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay, address everything from religion to spirituality to the dangers of technology in a way that never comes across as preachy or snobby. Hazart never talk down to their audience, trusting them to fully grasp the wide range of thoughts and ideas they express throughout the film’s 109-minute runtime.
Those scenes – and most if the film itself – rest on the backs of the characters of Ian and Olivia, and it is to the credit of their actors that they work impressively well, with Berchtold and Kim fearlessly diving headfirst into their characters’ complex psyches, emerging with layered, complex and nuanced portrayals of grief and inner turmoil. Berchold, in particular, is excellent in his first starring role, using his demeanor, physicality and a series of gestures to express the basic differences between the actual Ian and the machine he has been replaced with.
Unfortunately, though, A Hard Problem never manages to reach its full potential even though it has all the right ingredients – quite possibly due to the film’s lack of a considerable budget. The tone and structure of the film are carefully controlled by hazart, starting off with a subtle and sharp crescendo that eventually and disappointingly fades into an anticlimactic third act instead of the explosive, all-out finales of similar films, such as ex_machina.
Featuring gorgeous cinematography, a subtle yet effective score and impressive VFX, A Hard Problem is still ultimately an intelligent, engrossing and highly effective study of the moral and ethical dangers of technology that is definitely worth a watch – even though it never quite ends up reaching the heights of some of its contemporaries.
Rating: 3.5/5
A Hard Problem screened at the Cinequest Film Festival in March 2021.