Renner Review: Clever Premise, Disappointing End
Streaming Movie Review - VOD - Thriller
Siri came onto the scene in 2010, with Alexa just a few years behind in 2014. ChatGPT took things to the next level by allowing us to have more in depth “conversations,” and now AI is staring you in the face just about every time you open your computer or your phone. In the film Renner, now available on VOD, director Robert Rippberger, along with co-writers Luke Medina and Martin Medina, examines AI and the way it’s created.
Renner (Frankie Muniz) is a tech genius who has created a new AI program that he calls Salenus (Marcia Gay Harden). Each morning, she gives him helpful hints to become a more successful and confident version of himself. She helps him clean his apartment, reminding him how important it is for everything to be tidy and exactly in its place. But when Renner steps outside of his apartment, he is just hoping to see his new neighbor, Jamie (Violett Beane), whom he has developed a crush on. After an awkward dinner with Jamie and her brother, Chad (Taylor Gray), Renner and Jamie begin a relationship. But as Jamie and Renner grow closer, Salenus begins to sow doubts about Jamie’s intentions.
This film was quite the mixed bag. It had some really interesting things to say about AI and how it is not an intelligence but rather based on what the programmers put into it. The more we learn about Renner and the relationship that he had with his mother, the more we understand how and why Salenus acts the way that she does. The film also has a twist in it that mostly works, until it gets to the end when it goes completely around the bend with a kind of deus ex machina ending that is deeply unsatisfying.
The strength of this movie lies heavily in Muniz's performance. If you primarily know him from Malcolm in the Middle, this is not that character. In Renner, Muniz shows his range as his character becomes slowly more unhinged. Co-stars Beane and Gray do an admirable job, but Muniz is a force in this, and it would be hard to match him.
One of the other positive aspects of Renner is the production design by Sonia Folarz. The bulk of the film happens in one space, and it has a futuristic look without being over the top. When the film moves into a different space in the third act, the visual contrast strengthens the emotional reaction that the audience is meant to have.
Unfortunately, despite some really positive aspects, the end of Renner felt like a cheat so egregious that it destroyed a lot of the goodwill that it built up throughout. It felt very much like the writers put themselves in a corner and didn’t have a good way to escape. It cheapens the rest of the film in a way that is truly disappointing. Still, if you want to catch up on what Frankie Muniz has been up to, that is a decent reason to watch.
Rating: 2.5/5
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on March 29, 2025.
Check out my interview with director Robert Rippberger below.
Poor Frankie might see all this negativity. How sad.