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.
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