This quirky, funny and utterly charming off-kilter British comedy is an extremely effective expansion of the 2017 short film, in which single and lonely Brian, living alone in his isolated rural cottage, creates strange inventions in his workshop, eventually making a robot called Charles with a mannequin's head and a washing machine for a body, and so the tale of their developing relationship unfolds. Shot with an effective mockumentary style, our narrator/subject Brian is a quintessentially likeable downtrodden British eccentric, but here he represents everybody's need for friendship and company, alongside providing a big old metaphor for parenthood as we follow Charles from an infant state through childhood to teenagedom. Essentially a two-hander for the most part, this is an absolute tour-de-force performance from David Earl as Brian, taking the viewer not only on the journey of looking after the initially child-like Charles but also his burgeoning relationship with a local woman and finding the strength to stand up to the local bullying family, and Chris Hayward's comic timing as Charles is superb. The film has moments of daftness, laugh-out-loud hilarity, sincerity and heart-breaking emotion - you will be amazed how attached you can become to the hulkingly awkward robot - all of which makes this film an unexpected and utter delight.
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