NR | 1h 47m | Speculative fiction | 2026
In the past, anyone who wanted to talk to deceased loved ones might fall prey to psychic scam artists. A neuroscientist like Abby (Maria Bakalova) is too smart for that. However, she is receptive to the idea of an AI construct of her late father, Warren (David Strathairn).
Once the AI service downloads its data, Abby regularly journeys into the so-called “Uncanny Valley” in director-screenwriter Madeleine Rotzler’s “O Horizon.”
Sam (Adam Pally), the proprietor of the Seeking a Friend service, is manically geeky and neurotic, but that may give him credibility with Abby. It’s been several months since her father’s death, but his loss still feels fresh. Unable to move on, she contacts Seeking a Friend to digitize her father for voice and video calls.
Ironically, Abby is on the brink of a professional triumph, right when her personal life sinks to its lowest nadir. Her team has made tremendous progress in implanting sensory experiences into the mind of their test monkey.
An AI Father
This development will eventually allow paralysis victims to feel like they are walking on the beach or participating in other such pleasant physical activities. The team is not there yet, but their journal articles have been the toast of the scientific community. Her father’s AI reads them, too.
As Abby says the things she needed to say to her father and the AI tells her what it computes Warren would want her to hear, she grows more engaged in life. She even starts dating Douglas (Avi Nash), but she fears he will consider her heart-to-heart sessions with the AI simulation of her father weird and unhealthy.
Behind the Performances
Abby’s research project bears a strong conceptual resemblance to the MacGuffin device in Douglas Trumbull’s troubled 1983 science fiction film “Brainstorm.” Rotzler’s screenplay is not nearly as original as she might hope viewers will think it is. However, the film benefits enormously from David Strathairn’s warm, reassuring voice. Strathairn also contributed voice-overs to the documentary “This Ordinary Thing.”Bakalova (who was Oscar-nominated for “Borat”) is unusually quiet and reserved as Abby, sometimes to a frustrating degree. However, she forges a nice rapport with Strathairn.
Pally’s nervously nebbish humor adds some bite. He seems like a more credible match for Abby than Douglas, whom Nash invests with almost superhuman levels of sensitivity and forgiveness.
Fans of 1980s pop will also be pleasantly surprised when Aimee Mann (co-founder of the band Till Tuesday) pops up as the owner of the vacation cabin Abby and Douglas rent. Mann even sticks around long enough to perform two songs (“Stuck in the Past” and “Brother’s Keeper”) around the campfire.
It is a nice moment, but “O Horizon” is too often stuck in “nice” gear. Admittedly, Bakalova’s Abby experiences plenty of angst and anxiety, but her shifting sexual orientation just adds a vague sense of confusion.
Nevertheless, it is undeniably refreshing to see a loving father-and-daughter relationship depicted on-screen, without a hint of abuse or impropriety.
Rotzler’s family history might overshadow the film’s family values. Formerly known as Madeleine Sackler, Rotzler grew up as the granddaughter and heir to one of the co-founders of Purdue Pharma, the scandal-tarred makers of the opioid OxyContin.
She deserves credit for her illuminating documentary “The Lottery.” The film captures the efforts of low-income parents to get their children into charter schools and the tactics of teachers’ unions to keep them out. Regardless, nothing in Rotzler’s past has any bearing on the relative merits of “O Horizon.”
The speculative elements of “O Horizon” hardly sound revolutionary today, but fatherhood still matters in this very-near future. That definitely counts for something.
Some of the casting decisions are highly debatable, but Strathairn consistently elevates the father-daughter drama, almost to redemptive levels. It might be potentially cathartic for some viewers, but it is subdued and unhurried, to a fault.
“Marjorie Prime” is a much better, thematically related film. Perhaps some intrigued viewers might consider it for streaming eventually, but “O Horizon” is not sufficiently gripping or grabby to recommend.
