Blank (2022) review: Where would we be without technology? Watch and learn

Here we go then, the first review of 2024, and, fresh from still wondering why I’m the only person who thinks The Holiday is the worst Christmas movie ever, I had high hopes for Blank. Did it live up to expectations? Glad you asked because if you see a better British Sci-Fi thriller this year – on second thoughts, drop the ‘British’ part – I’ll need some serious convincing.

From director Natalie Kennedy, this revolutionary affair is, at times, ridiculously good. Like the AI technology that’s at the heart of the film, it isn’t flawless, but keeps your mind thinking all sorts of often strange and wonderful things.

Whether they’re more strange than wonderful depends entirely upon you and where you stand on the whole AI debate. Sharing the theme’s centre stage is a struggling author, Claire Rivers (Rachel Shelley). Struggling to finish writing her latest thriller, she takes off to a country retreat that’s ran completely by virtual reality, with two androids, Henry (Wayne Brady) and Rita (Heida Reed), ensuring her stay is a pleasant one.

Now traditionally, when a movie depicts a novelist with writer’s block, it’s not an altogether pleasant experience for the stricken scribe. Like The Shining and Misery before it, Blank will have you second-guessing throughout and witnessing Claire’s stay turning into one that’s anything but pleasant. From this, you might be thinking that this doesn’t paint 21st-century tech in a good light. Again, that’s down to how much you believe AI will be a force for good, as on the whole this presents the potential good and bad. Let’s be honest though, this would never have been much of a movie if things didn’t take a few sinister turns, would it? It’s fair to say there’s no spoiler alert required.

Stephen Herman‘s script presents the battle between old and new, past and present, as very subtle undercurrents to the main struggle of Claire being thrown into extremely unfamiliar territory. This makes it difficult to see the significance of the odd scene here and there, but it’s all worth it in the end. It has no problem in keeping an audience hooked, so even if things do go off kilter from time to time there’s the inevitable swift recovery. This is one of those rare gems that you don’t need to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy, as the genre’s almost a sideshow for the way it taps into our emotions and society’s big questions.

Thankfully, it stops short of trying to send us totally bonkers as well, although that would’ve been a neat trick and almost certainly earned Blank the full five stars. If you take it fairly seriously but not too much, then you’ll end up with much food for thought but enough to just pose questions rather than sending your mind into overdrive. If ever a movie showed the beauty of a very small cast (five here), it’s this. Any more and you’d likely find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer concept of the storyline.

And to be quite frank, if this doesn’t get you thinking then no film will. I said at the top that it’s fascinating, frightening and funny. You can add fearless and funky to that list, as it’s definitely not afraid to challenge people’s perceptions from either side of the divide. Blank is available on UK digital download on January 8.