The Companion

THE COMPANION. Gary Fleder, dir. Ian Seeberg, script. USA: MCA/Universal Home Video, 1996. 94 min. Direct-to-Video.

An "android" becomes the perfect male companion: "strong but compassionate; rough but gentle; reliable but unpredictable . . .; proud but not arrogant," etc.—and attempting to fulfill all the contradictory demands "mentally short-circuits," becoming overly "protective of his mistress in the fashion of the Jack Williamson classic 'With Folded Hands,' coupled with some of 2001's HAL's more enthusiastic proclivities"—see 2001 by A. C. Clarke under Fiction and 2001: A Space Odyssey under Drama. Rev. Dennis Fischer, Cinefantastique 29.10 (Feb. 1998): 54, our source for this citation and whom we quote. (RDE, 16/06/98)