"Kimi" was a film I had no intention of watching, but it was able to grip me rather quickly. It follows Angela Childs, a tech worker with agoraphobia who comes across a dangerous conspiracy that makes her face her greatest fear. A primary backdrop is the AI device Kimi that the company she works for is developing.

The first half of the film was great. In my opinion, it did a great job at portraying agoraphobia and Angela's struggles with her mental health. Utilising contemporary themes of the Covid pandemic, lockdown, work-at-home culture, and social isolation was a risky move, but it was interwoven fantastically into the narrative. Could have felt like a tacky attempt at reaching a modern audience, but it's an integral part of the story. Most of this part of the movie works off of character exploration, with a solid focus on realism. I enjoyed delving into layers of Angela's character, as well as the various details in the small environment she has surrounded herself with.

Past a certain point, once the plot really kicks in, is where my major issues with the film come. It was entertaining all the way through, I'll give it that. But it was so bloody stupid that it felt like an entirely different movie, one of my prime gripes - the tonal inconsistency. From an uncomfortable portrayal of a rarely explored mental health issue, we quickly rush into a thriller with completely ridiculous stakes. [spoiler]To start with, having three hitmen sent against Angela came out of left field, even with the set-up. The realism was broken, moreso with how incompetent they were. Trying to abduct her right next to a huge crowd. All those points about the information age, but no one would mention the attempted kindapping of a girl in the middle of a riot? Then they got her at her home and were left dumbfounded, legitimately stunned, when she issued a few commands at Kimi. Worst of all, the ending was fun, but completely ridiculous and out-of-place. The movie turned into a very violent version of "Home Alone", just end everything with a nailgun and hitmen who are afraid to use their guns. And to my disappointment, the ending was tone-deaf. Apparently, surviving an attempted assasination and murdering three of your assailants is the perfect way to kick off your recovery from mental illness! Because Angela appears completely happy, like all her struggles are now gone. Without a scene to suggest how she approached such changes in her life, only the aftermath.[/spoiler]

"Kimi" was a very intriguing film to see, but got marginally worse in quite the rapid fashion as it went on. It's a shame as I genuinely loved its more introspective set-up portion, before it delved into its actual plot. The mystery was disturbing, but the tonal shifts drove my suspense away, later leaving me only dumbfounded at what I'd just seen. Some great ideas in here, but they didn't contribute to as much as they should have in the end. One thing that remained consistenly great - Zoe Kravits's performance. Her mannerisms were quite varied and there was a lot of subtlety to her delivery.