Genesis 2:18 reads, “The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.”  A few verses later, God creates Eve from one of Adam’s bones since none of the other creatures He had created were suitable as a partner for this first man.  There are many aspects of Faith that have come from these lines, such as the fact of God’s hand being in everything around us, particularly ourselves.  For Catholicism, it has informed our vocations.  It is not solely about marriage, though that is the most common interpretation.  Rather, it is more general, with the idea being that we are social beings, needing the company of others in order to thrive.  Thus we get religious orders.  These themes are present in today’s film, Brian and Charles (2022), and it is a cuter version of what Hollywood typically does with the notion of loneliness.

Before there is a Brian and Charles, Brian Gittins (David Earl) admits to being lonely.  His environment does not help.  He lives in a remote Welsh village alone, with his only company being his inventions.  As an aside, much of this is shot as a mockumentary, with him interacting with the filmmakers like those behind the camera are characters.  Hence, Brian is explaining his life to them and how he spends most of his time tinkering.  The inventions are crude, and many of them do not work as intended, such as his flying cuckoo clock.  Because he does not have fancy component parts, but is unwilling to give up on his hobby, he is continually scouring the junkyard for whatever he can use.  While sifting through the rubbish one day, he finds something that gives him a real spark of inspiration: a badly damaged mannequin head.  From that moment on, he begins assembling what he needs to build a robot.  A bit of metal rod becomes an ankle, and a washing machine provides the torso.  Once everything is assembled, he flicks a switch and . . . nothing happens.  Given the state of it, this should not be surprising.  Instead, he goes into town to do some shopping, meeting along the way Hazel (Louise Brealey), a local woman that he is too shy to ask out, and vice versa.  Upon returning home, Brian notices strange lights coming from his work shed.  He goes inside and after looking around, a figure dashes outside.  When he re-emerges, his creation is standing in the garden eating cabbages.  Brian is overjoyed, bringing it inside and eventually falling asleep.  Upon awakening, the robot is speaking, identifying random objects in the room.  It read the dictionary overnight and has developed the ability to speak.  Brian asks it what it wants to be called, and it responds with Charles Portescu (Chris Hayward).  Brian is overjoyed to finally have someone (something, really), with whom he can chat and to help with things around the house.  From nearly the beginning, Charles has a child-like curiosity about the world around him, and the impetuosity of a child to go along with it.  For the moment, Brian tells Charles that the world is a dangerous place, but this is more a function of his own fears.  It is not just Brian’s inability to interact with people like Hazel.  In town lives Eddie (Jamie Michie), who has raised a family of bullies whom no one is willing to confront, least of all Brian.  Thus, Brian tells Charles that people will not understand the automaton, but really the former wants the latter to avoid Eddie.  The arrangement is working until one night while Brian and Charles are watching television, the robot gets excited by a travel show about Hawai’i.  Going to the Aloha State quickly becomes Charles’ obsession, and being told no basically turns him into an angsty teenager.  It is all Brian can do to keep the peace than to bring Charles to the shops, but the robot must remain in the car.  As Charles is sitting there, he is noticed by Hazel.  Brian comes out to see her conversing with Charles, and she is sworn to secrecy.  Next, Charles invites her to go with them to a walk along the lake.  It is the opening for which Brian has been waiting, and he finally plucks up the courage to ask her if she would like to spend more time together.  She says yes, but the more they do things, the more Charles wants to get away.  It comes to a head when Eddie comes to Brian’s cottage to try to buy Charles for Eddie’s daughters.  Brian refuses, but after an afternoon at Hazel’s place, they come back to his house to find Charles stolen.  Brian tries to reason with Eddie for Charles’ return, but the bully refuses.  Not only is Brian not getting Charles back, but Eddie plans to use the robot as fuel for his upcoming Guy Fawkes’ Day Bonfire.  There is a Catholic connection with that holiday, by the way, but it is not important here.  Brian is about to give up, but Hazel reminds him how inventive he is.  Thus, they come up with a plan for rescuing Charles.  At first, it looks as if it only involves retrieving Eddie from the blaze.  However, Eddie catches up with them in front of all the villagers.  In the presence of everyone, Brian unleashes a pushing device that sends Eddie flying backwards several feet.  The bully backs down, and Brian, Charles, and Hazel are able to go home.  A few days later, Brian presents Charles with a ticket to travel around the world.  We close with Brian and Hazel taking Charles to the train station, sad for the parting but excited about the adventure.

It is safe to say that Brian and Charles is not an exciting movie, but it is an endearing one.  That is all a Catholic could ever ask from a film.  You could have explosions and any other number of so-called thrilling scenes, but give me a piece of cinema with heart.  Still, at the heart of this one is the notion of man creating intelligence.  These days we refer to it as artificial intelligence (AI), and it is not a simple issue.  It is a tricky thing in the film because Brian’s stated goal is to create a robot.  To the Church, there is nothing wrong with such machines provided they are at the service of human beings.  What Charles becomes is something different.  He is almost human, and if not for the automaton voice and misshapen body, could pass for anyone.  Because of his human-like qualities, it is not right to treat such a slave, which is what Brian initially wants without saying it.  What Catholicism tries to steer clear of in the AI debate is anthropomorphizing such tools.  Our role in making new lives can be found in our cooperation with the procreative act.  The rest is up to God.  Hopefully, this is not the direction we are moving with AI.  However, for argument’s sake, if we were to imagine Charles as real, there is much to be learned from how Brian treats Charles.  Brian takes on a father-like role, not in a cruel way, but one that is gentle and guiding.  Put differently, without being directly about Faith, Brian behaves like a Christian dad.  One specific area Brian needs praise is in his non-violent approach to Eddie.  There are several ways to stand up to bullies, and Brian chooses one that most closely emulates Jesus, until Brian uses the pushing device, that is.

I do not think I need to be pushy to get you to watch Brian and Charles.  It is quirky, to be sure, but it is the sweetness of the story that wins the day.  I hope this is enough to convince you to give it a try.