Subject: Review: A.I. (2001)

From: "Mark O'Hara" <[email-masked]>
Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:47:54 GMT

AI (2001)

The tone of Steven Spielberg’s AI is uneven because of his collaboration 
with the late director Stanley Kubrick – but a mediocre work from either of 
these masters is still superior to fare offered by most other filmmakers.

Apparently Mr. Kubrick had been developing the project for years, and 
requested Mr. Spielberg to take it over.  Based on a short story by Brian 
Aldiss, as well as the screen story by Ian Watson, AI is the first 
screenplay written by Speilberg since his CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD 
KIND.  The piece opens with a speech by Dr. Hobby (William Hurt) to his 
colleagues, a proclamation that even more human-like robots should be 
developed and marketed by his company.  Switch to the home of one of the 
company’s employees, Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica 
(Frances O’Connor), whose son Martin is in cryogenic suspension because of a 
disease beyond current science.  Dr. Hobby and the company place a prototype 
of a robot designed to mimic a human child – David, played by Haley Joel 
Osment, with the Swintons.  For several sequences we are treated to mildly 
creepy scenes, but the real rub begins when Monica commences the ritualistic 
activation of David’s special programming – he is designed to love the one 
on whom he imprints, and even more intensely, to seek love from him or her.

What engaging questions Spielberg is raising here.  First (and I heard this 
idea recently on a radio interview unrelated to the movie), why should 
humans strive to create machines in their own images?  Why not make them 
functional in the ways an auto manufacturer engineers a welding robot, 
without legs or a minutely mimetic face?  Just because we might at some time 
have the technology to make a completely plausible copy of a human, does 
that mean we should?  Most importantly – and this idea hearkens back to many 
other films, such as WESTWORLD or the less well-known ZPG (ZERO POPULATION 
GROWTH) – should we interact with these super toys just as we interact with 
other humans – as objects and sources of passion and love?  Can a “mecha” 
(the mechanistic versus the organic, or “orga,” by the way) assume the full 
role of homo sapien?

The grist of the film is the social hierarchy you would expect from Stanley 
Kubrick.  The “mechas” are the quite literally disposable underclass, the 
target of the hatred of the “orgas,” and a marginalized and easily 
persecuted subculture.  In some of the most gripping scenes, the robots are 
rounded up and finally held in a cage.  Reminding us of ancient Christians 
awaiting slaughter by lions, the various generations of personified machines 
are destroyed by different perverse methods, the center of a spectacle known 
as the “Flesh Fair.”  After some very powerful scenes in the upset lives of 
the Swinton family, David is discarded, and falls in with another mecha on 
the run, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a love-slave robot framed for murder.  In 
this central section of the film, David and Joe become both fugitives and 
adventurers, as David pursues his quest of finding the Blue Fairy, the 
character with whom he has become obsessed since hearing that she turned 
Pinocchio into a real boy; David reasons, of course, that after he becomes 
human, his mother would love him more than ever, and accept him back into 
her life.

Haley Joel Osment pulls off his robot act extremely well.  His David is 
supposed to be seamless in his movements – and that’s probably not hard to 
act out.  But Osment excels with the emotional infancy that David must 
suffer through.  He’s a boy of eleven or so and suddenly must bond closely 
with his “Mommy,” a woman whom he called Monica just seconds before his 
activation.   What a young age to be capable of such consistently strong 
performances!

Spielberg certainly deserves credit for surrounding his main player with 
such capable supporting actors.  The parents, Robards and O’Connor, turn in 
fine performances, and Jude Law is strangely accurate in his portrayal of 
this empathetic yet egotistical automaton.   There’s a certain likable 
cheesiness about his personality, especially when he cocks his head and 
early twentieth-century romantic tunes come from his body.  A great make-up 
job too.

The special effects are wonderful, as one would expect from a science 
fiction film with Steven Spielberg at the helm.  Animatronic effects are 
done by the master himself, Stan Winston.  I especially like the little bear 
named Teddy, voiced by the veteran of many animated outings, Jack Angel.  He 
is at once gruff and cute.

I have heard that AI differs from anything Spielberg has done so far.  I 
would agree, though many scenes inevitably evoke memories of portions of his 
work.  There’s the confusion of Shanghai streets in EMPIRE OF THE SUN; there 
are the intimate familial relationships (and the moon) from ET; there are 
several images straight from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.  It is when the story returns 
to David’s quest for the Fairy – and for the all-important mother love – 
that the momentum slows.  It is fair to say that the third and final act is 
effective enough, though it does not seem to realize its parentage.  What 
comes before it is not exactly adequate foreshadowing for a brutally 
realistic Kubrickian climax; nor is it the comfy Spielbergian rising action. 
  Nevertheless, the film takes big risks, and even though they are not all 
successful, we come away with amazement and thoughts to keep us busy for 
several hours and conversations.

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

--