‘Artificial Intelligence’ makes mediocre film
If Steven Speilberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” is anything, it is bold. But bold does not always mean engaging.
The brainchild of late director Stanley Kubrick, “A.I.” mixes “Pinocchio” with “The Wizard of Oz” and “Close Encounters of The Third Kind” to tell its futuristic tale.
Now out on video and DVD, “A.I.” is the story of David, the latest and greatest cybernetic creation. Played by talented, 13-year-old Haley Joel Osment, David is the first child “mecha” with the ability to express love.
David is adopted by a couple waiting for a cure for their son who has been cryogenically frozen.
Monica, portrayed by the graceful Frances O’Connor of “About Adam” soon takes to her new “son” while her husband remains ambivalent. Trouble arises when the couple’s real son is cured and returns home.
Monica realizes she must get rid of David and abandons him in the woods. So David finds himself in a series of adventures. He searches for Pinocchio’s Blue Fairy, hoping she can turn him into a real boy so his mother will love him.
Along the way, David meets the suave Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law of “Enemy at the Gates.” Joe is a singing, dancing, street walking Gene Kelly designed to gratify female clients. While his character is generally under used, he does have the film’s most important discussion with David.
“She loves you because of what you do for her,” Joe says of David’s mother. These words no doubt reflect Joe’s own relationship with women, but do raise the question: Can humans really love a machine?
When Monica tucks David into bed for the first time he says mechanically, “I can never really sleep. But I can lay still and not make a peep.”
Monica knows David cannot sleep — he doesn’t even blink — she goes through the same routines she did with her real son. By doing so, she fulfills her own emotional needs.
To show just how “human” David has become, roles are reversed as he tucks in Monica at the finale, fulfilling his own long-held desires of being human.
The maniacal Gladiator-meets-Demolition Derby “Flesh Fair,” and the neon opulence of Rouge City are wonderful to look at, but the problem with “A.I.” is its perspective. Probably at Kubrick’s insistence, the film asks the viewer to invest emotional care in a faux-emotional robot.
Speilberg deals with this tricky hand abstractly, but skillfully. He tries his best to make the audience all warm and fuzzy by the film’s end. This is difficult, considering in the movie the earth is a frozen wasteland ruled by supercomputers.
David’s singular desire to be loved by Monica, despite all other circumstances, is a constant reminder of his programmed nature. While Osment’s performance is masterful, David’s origins lessen the film’s emotional and philosophical impact.
“A.I.” should have focused more on Monica as a robot-adopting mother, and on her son who returns from a coma to find he has been replaced by a “mecha.” In its most Kubrickesque section, the first third of “A.I.” nearly accomplishes this task. Unfortunately Kubrick’s influence reduces dramatically as the film progresses.
Staunchly opposed to director commentaries, Speilberg offers none on this DVD. But “A.I.” features several documentaries, interviews and Kubrick’s original storyboards, to give a behind-the-scenes look at this bold, but misfired sci-fi fairy tale.