“I see gold people” is what Haley Joel Osment will be saying come Academy Awards time for his performance in A.I., but for now all he is seeing is circuitry. Osment stars as the most human robot that has graced the silver screen in years.
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is Stephen Spielberg’s labor of love and Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished masterpiece that was shrouded in secrecy and delayed by both directors’ perfectionist propensities. The result is a movie that is as bold in its prophecy as it is whimsical and beautiful in its fairy tale.
The time is the not-too-distant future. The earth’s polar ice caps have melted, displacing millions, starving many more and leaving cities like New York a barren expanse of ocean.
Those who remain are forced to limit population and consolidate resources. The use of robots becomes essential to survival and the robots’ lack of need for resources makes them ideal to coexist with and aid the beleaguered human race.
However, with the eventual mass production of these self-sustaining beings, philosophical questions are raised. Can robots feel? Can robots love? Can they hate? Most importantly, can they be loved?
Osment’s character, David, is the first mecha (mechanical person) of his kind; he has been programmed to feel and to love. His sole purpose is to be the perfect child, and love whoever imprints themselves as his mother or father.
David is given to a family whose son suffers from inoperable cancer and is frozen until treatment becomes available. David’s innocent ways eventually win over the mother who bore major resentment toward the “replacement child.”
She imprints herself as David’s mother and a strong bond begins to grow. He also becomes fascinated by the story of a little wooden boy named Pinocchio who wants to become real.
Science deals David a blow when the biological son is cured and returns home. An instant rivalry ensues. David will do anything to prove his love to his mother, even letting her human son trick him into mischief.
Accidents happen caused by David, threatening the lives of the family, and the mother is forced to return David for termination, as he is unable to be reprogrammed.
Instead, she abandons him in the middle of the forest where he begins a surreal journey through the dark side of humanity and attempts to find the blue fairy from the Pinocchio story so he can become a real boy and his mother will love him again.
He is aided by a robotic teddy bear and another robot named Gigolo Joe, Jude Law, whose sole purpose is to pleasure women. The unlikely trio sets out on a “Wizard of Oz”-like journey to regain the family that David lost.
If you buy this storyline and can watch a two-and-a-half hour movie about a boy that only talks about becoming real and loves his mother, then you will love this film. If not and you simply like well-made movies, then you will also love this film. If neither applies to you, go see Scary Movie 2 down the hall.
Osment’s performance is amazing. His ability to be the perfectly innocent boy, mechanical and also full of awe and love shows great depth.
His range of emotions and actions are remarkable, as Osment acts in ways some adult actors cannot do their entire life. Law’s character is a delightful mix of Gene Kelly and Don Juan who adds the dark element and the Fruedian tendencies that can be found in all of Kubrick’s films. Frances O’Connor does a great job as David’s mother and the bond between the two is very convincing.
The musical score by John Williams accompanies the film and fills in all the places where dialogue and actions do not. The special effects take a back seat to the story, which is wonderfully refreshing in a movie that is part science fiction.
But the parts that require the blue screen, like flying through waste-land New York and the convincing realness of the robots give the right touches to the film.
Indeed almost everything in the film feels right which is appropriate in Spielberg’s film. It has a great balance between Kubrick and Spielberg’s styles so it does not get too dark or too sappy.The ending is unexpected and all the questions and results will give you plenty to talk about for days after seeing the movie.
In A.I.’s opening weekend, the Spielberg/Kubrick collaboration took in $29.352 million and was seen on over 3,242 screens nation wide.
Grade: A
