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Marjorie Prime

Play trailer 2:21 Poster for Marjorie Prime Released Aug 18, 2017 1h 39m Comedy Drama Sci-Fi Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
89% Tomatometer 93 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie's Prime relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past.

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Marjorie Prime

Marjorie Prime

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Critics Consensus

Intimate in setting yet ambitious in scope, the beautifully acted Marjorie Prime poses thought-provoking questions about memory, humanity, and love.

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Critics Reviews

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J. R. Jones Chicago Reader Michael Almereyda (Experimenter) directed, honoring the play's quiet solemnity and carefully crafted dialogue. Mar 25, 2020 Full Review Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard It's a topical treatise on memory and artificial intelligence that asks how the human brain works (or doesn't). Rated: 4/5 Nov 10, 2017 Full Review Ed Potton Times (UK) Hamm is note-perfect in the role, programmed to be charming and empathetic but prone to gaucheness when someone wrong-foots his software. Rated: 4/5 Nov 10, 2017 Full Review Diana Tuova Spotlight on Film The film never, even for an instance, forgets its roots in a play...the compelling nature of this cinematic take on a play is...lost somewhere between the film’s musical score and its debates on the best dog breed. Rated: 3/5 Aug 4, 2024 Full Review Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine While I’m not necessarily hypnotized by sci-fi themes and, uh, “meditations on memory,” I’m very interested in whatever Almereyda does... Jan 11, 2023 Full Review David Bax Battleship Pretension Marjorie Prime is a movie about memory but it's also a movie about identity, arguing convincingly eloquently that the two are synonyms. Dec 11, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (49) audience reviews
Georgan G What a delightful concept, to have a recreation of a loved one to be with you during old age. Great acting. SPOILER ALERT!!! The family is eventually all AI. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/24 Full Review Alec B An often fascinating science-fiction meditation on memory and one that proves that the genre doesn't need a large budget or even special effects to be convincing. Lois Smith remains a national treasure. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/03/24 Full Review Taylor L For one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, an actress who made her debut alongside James Dean (in East of Eden) and who has been in near-constant demand ever since, Lois Smith gets criminally little name recognition. Though it has all the details of a film adapted from a play (the intimacy and the typical restrictions in set and scope), Marjorie Prime does have an interesting concept behind it, almost like a Twilight Zone episode adapted for drama - a series of emotional support holograms, designed to look like deceased loved ones, serve as emotional crutches while remaining emotionally distant. As time passes, more genuine people die, replaced by their doppelgängers; they've got charm and are programmed for genial conversation (could Jon Hamm even turn it off?), but can only imitate the warmth of a real connection. The interactions between these false images and their surviving loved ones form a means of exploring grief, unresolved trauma, and aging as details come out about past experiences and the years wear on, with little to signify the passage of time except a few more dialogue-based faux pas. While the aloofness is part of the point, something still seems to be missing from the execution here, maybe more of an emotional whallop or a dystopian element (don't we all know subtlety is for losers?). Much like a hologram of a loved one learning a new detail of 'their' life for the first time, something doesn't click. But the performances are strong, particularly Smiths, and it's nice to see that Tim Robbins and Geena Davis are still getting work. The '90s weren't dead yet in 2017. (3/5) Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review linda h This movie, like so many other movies recently, initially seems interesting, but ends up disappointing. Things occur during the movie where you're asking yourself: "What was THAT all about?" You continue watching, because, even though it leaves you wondering after certain scenes, it IS interesting. You hope, by the end of the movie, you'll be provided with a scene or two that ties it all together, explains it, etc. But, as I said initially, like so many other movies recently, the ending is not really a traditional ending, but rather, the movie just stops in mid sentence, so to speak. There could EASILY have been more to the movie, for instance, an ending which leaves you going, "Aaah! -- NOW I see the point!" But, instead, at the end of the movie, you're waiting for another scene or two to provide you with a satisfying ending -- rather than frustration that you just wasted two hours of your life. Great acting is, well, great -- but I want a movie that both entertains and tells a story that has a purpose/point. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member While it lost my attention at certain points - and many of the characters had little depth - I feel like this movie was really well done. It accomplished what it set out to accomplish. This seems like a solid 7/10. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review spencer p A beautifully written piece of simple slight-of-hand sci-fi that plays to the strengths of its actors and editing. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie's Prime relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past.
Director
Michael Almereyda
Producer
Uri Singer
Screenwriter
Michael Almereyda
Distributor
FilmRise
Production Co
BB Film Productions, Passage Pictures (II), 141 Entertainment
Genre
Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 18, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 2, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$179.2K
Runtime
1h 39m
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