The Alpha Test

Sadly, the rest of the acting is not as assured. Belemjian is a blank slate, so while he is not awful, he is not memorable. Reichert is trying so hard to be jovial that it comes across as forced. But, it is Seidel who really brings the movie down. Granted, some of the problems lie in the ludicrous dialogue and actions Kim is given, but she is not helping matters. She is such an over-the-top cartoon character that she appears to have wandered in from a different movie. Every action Seidel takes is larger than life, in a distracting, clumsy way. Her outburst upon first seeing Alpha is more likely to make the audience giggle than entice them to understand her viewpoint.

To be fair to Seidel, I am not aware of too many actors that can make a desperate plea to walk down by the lake as to murder a robot all that believable. Mirtes’s screenplay is so focused on over-explaining certain elements that its good ideas get buried. Every member of the family has a different reaction to and way of acting towards Alpha. Lily sees a friend and gets defensive when she thinks (sometimes incorrectly) that someone is mistreating her. JD just sees a series of walking wires and coded programming to study and examine. Rob tries to be kind towards Alpha, but in only using her to show off, he does treat her like an object. Then there is, of course, the maid and Kim’s absolute hatred of the robotic home assistant.

“…the design of the android is hideous.”

While these elements are in play, they are not explored, which leads to the plot being rather straightforward and predictable. If Mirtes had been more interested in the bigger picture of the world he created, than in telling a technological action-thriller, he might have been able to make a unique movie. The Machine, a beautiful, spellbinding film from 2013, proves that such a feat is not only possible, but the results can be masterful.

The Alpha Test cannot settle on a tone, thanks to poor characterization and one dreadful casting choice. The android of the title is an eyesore, that looks very cheap from a costume and design standpoint (once again reference The Machine for how to do this right even on a budget). But, Rae Hunt, as Alpha, is able to overcome those obstacles to craft an empathetic character, as is Bella Martin as the optimistic Lily. But there’s nothing to entice the viewer to come back for a rewatch, and its ideas are not explored enough to have anything meaningful to say.