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Verdict: This tin man has a heart, but his movie needs a pulse.

Details: Starring Robin Williams and Sam Neill. Directed by Chris Columbus. Rated PG for language and sexual content. 2 hours, 12 minutes.

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Review: If the re-teaming of huggy-feely actor Robin Williams and cheese-wiz director Chris Columbus ("Mrs. Doubtfire") gives you early holiday indigestion, here's the good news: "Bicentennial Man" is a sweet, relatively restrained bit of sci-fi schmaltz. The story of a robot who wants to be human, it's the polar opposite of "The Matrix": a feel-good man-and-machine movie to bear us toward the end of the century.

Based on writings by Isaac Asimov, "Man" delivers a Pinocchio for the Internet age, sprinkled with some fairy dust from Peter Pan. Williams (in heavy makeup for half the film) plays the android Andrew, brought into the wealthy home of the Martins. He refers to the father (Sam Neill) as "Sir," the mother (Wendy Crewson) as "Ma'am" and the daughters as "Miss" and "Little Miss."

Everyone but Sir finds this polite, metallic butler a little creepy at first; the elder daughter even tries to make him self-destruct. But Sir sees him as a steady friend, and for Little Miss — who grows up from Pepsi kid Hallie Kate Eisenberg into Embeth Davidtz — he's the next best thing to a boyfriend. Except for the bio-mechanical boundary between them...

There's another problem: time. As decades leapfrog forward, Andrew increasingly develops human traits (creativity, curiosity and a hint of emotion). But the people around him age, wither, die. "Will every human being that I care for just leave?" he asks. It underscores the movie's gentle melancholy, which may surprise audiences expecting a laugh-out-loud Williams comedy. The humor is on the mild, even lame side. (Asked to be an usher at a wedding, Andrew asks, "How does one ush?")

Overlong, like most flicks this time of year, "Man" moves swiftly for its first 90 minutes, but it slows down to become a disappointingly conventional love story that isn't really persuasive. The movie has a heart, but a flagging pulse.

Because it spans 200 years, "Man" includes a lot of old-age makeup for its actors, ranging from the passable to the very good. Unfortunately, Columbus and his designers deliver a familiar vision of the future. It's a place of busy cityscapes crisscrossed with aerial vehicles, and uncomfortable-looking beds without sheets; you expect a crew member of the Enterprise to turn up.

There's another problem with the movie. While Andrew the android is noble and sweet, what he lacks is exactly what is supposed to define him: personality.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service

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