Can a robot assuage a family’s grief?

   

 The loss of a child is serious business, but director Hirokazu Kore-eda treats the subject gently in Sheep in the Box, a fable bolstered by a touch of sci-fi. Kore-eda's screenplay involves a humanoid, a robot child that enters the movie to ease the pain of two grieving parents (Daigo Yamamoto and Haruka Ayase). 
   A company called Rebirth contacts the grieving couple. The company creates an exact replica of their late son Kakeru (Rimu Kuwaki), a humanoid that's been programmed to look, sound, and act like the seven-year-old child they lost.

 Kore-eda who won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for Shoplifters, adds idiosyncratic touches to a fable that sits on the edge of formula, never quite submitting to it but not finding a strikingly fresh alternative either.

    Not surprisingly, these parents -- one a carpenter, the other an architect -- run into problems when this robot boy arrives in their lives; the presence of the replacement child forces them to consider the grief they've been unable to face. Each assumes blame for the boy's death. They both had excuses for not picking Kakeru up from school on the day he died.

    Made with a gentle spirit, Sheep in the Box passes easily -- perhaps too easily.  Initially, Mom fully embraces the little robot. Dad remains skeptical. And each parent goes through periods of frustration with a son who doesn't eat and whose electrical system makes it dangerous for him to immerse in water.

      Some familiar questions arise: Is it possible that Kakeru has a soul? Is it unethical for adults to have control of Kakeru's body, which has been equipped with a GPS that prevents him from straying too far from his anxiety-prone parents.

      At one point, Kakeru meets other humanoids; they form a group that's intent on moving away from their human "parents," some of whom are abusive. 

      The movie sharpens when Grandma (Kimiko Yo) turns up, making no bones about her opposition to using an android as a palliative for grief. 

       Questions about humanity's future are raised but go nowhere. We're left with small humane moments, as Dad struggles with contradictions about his feelings. Mom, busy with one her projects, eventually faces some of the resentments motherhood can engender.

      Sheep in the Box -- the title derives from The Little Prince, a story Kakeru loves --offers sentiment, sci-fi elements, and tender touches, but the movie slips by without engaging on the deeper levels. A provocative subject fails to provoke.