I feel like I’m coming in late on Kimi because of its very time-bound nature, but then again, the lockdowns were three years ago this month and they already seem surreal and distant, so the movie has a strange nostalgia to it. Like in the beginning when a guy is on a Zoom call with his top half in a suit and his bottom half in pajamas. At least he was wearing pants, though, right?
The main character, Angela, is an agoraphobe who works from home, and is one of the human forces behind Kimi, the Alexis-like device that helpfully chirps, “I’m here!” when someone asks it a question. Sometimes Kimi messes up and Angela corrects the errors, whether Kimi mishears the title of a Taylor Swift song or overhears a conversation involving certain Freudian colloquialisms.
Angela does have a social life, such as it is. There’s a guy she talks to over Zoom in Romania, plus she talks to her mom on FaceTime. She even has a boyfriend, a guy from across the street who comes over for booty calls but who tries in vain to get Angela to leave the apartment. They text about meeting for breakfast at the food truck downstairs, but Angela gets cold feet at the last minute.
One night, while listening to a data stream, Angela overhears what she thinks is a woman being raped, and when she tries to contact her boss about it, well, let’s just say people who are supposed to be on her side aren’t, and there’s more going on than meets the eye. And yes, the guy in the pajama bottoms figures into it. So does another guy, Kevin, from across the street who’s always watching Angela through binoculars.
The character development is very on-point without a lot of exposition, and one of the things Kimi does really well is play up how off-balance Angela feels when she does finally leave her apartment. She walks with her head down, her hood up and her arms stiffly at her sides. While she’s at the metro station Angela backs up against a wall and stares out in front of her as if she’s trying to blend in. The camera is all over the place, tilted at Dutch angles and every other angle, sometimes fluidly and at other times bouncy like found footage.
I also like that the story is paced really well without a lot of flotsam in terms of plot. The movie doesn’t need it; Angela trying to overcome her demons and a few other things are plenty.
The only weak part of Kimi that I could see is Kevin. I can’t say too much without spoiling the ending, but the binocular thing is Peeping Tom creepy. And then Kevin just shows up at a crucial moment in the story as if someone waved a checkered flag or something to get him in there. I thought maybe he was an FBI agent, but expectations had to be shelved pretty quickly. Other than that, Kevin’s importance is pretty nil except to show Angela that she has a friend and to buy some time so other bits could happen.
Other than that, Kimi’s a fun one. It’s cool to see a movie that actually knows about and cares about its characters, and I hope there’s more where this came from.
Kimi is currently streaming on HBO Max. Rated R.
My grade: A-
Principal cast: Zoe Kravitz, Byron Bowers, Rita Wilson, Erica Christensen, India de Beaufort, Derek DelGaudio, Sarai Koo, Jaime Camil, Devin Rantray, Betsy Brantley, Emily Kuroda
Directed by Steven Sondbergh.
Written by David Koepp.