WhatzUp

Artificial Intelligence: A.I.
by Derek Neff

Artificial Intelligence: A.I. was one of the most fascinating movies to be released in 2001, both on its own considerable merits and because it was a collaborative effort, of sorts, between two very different auteur legends. The two directors in question, of course, are Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick had been working on the project since the 1980s, when he bought the rights to the short story by Brian Aldiss. When Kubrick died shortly after wrapping up Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, Kubrick’s unlikely friend, Spielberg, decided to take Kubrick’s storyboards and notes and not so much copy them as fold them into his own sensibilities. (The script credit goes to Spielberg; it’s the first screenplay he’s authored since Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) The result is a brilliant, bizarre and never less than compelling film, equal parts fairy tale and nightmare.

A.I. is divided into three parts. The first part concerns the home life of a family after a grieving couple have decided to adopt a robot — or mecha — for a son. The young mecha boy, David (Haley Joel Osment), is programmed to be obedient and adorable, but it is only after the mother recites a certain sequence of words that he is hard-wired to love his mother forever, no matter what. The second part follows David’s dark adventures after he is separated from his mother and sets off-like Pinocchio-in search of a way to make himself into a real boy to gain her love back. The third part I cannot explain lest I spoil it for you; suffice it to say that the film’s final sequence has put off just as many people as it’s won over.

The most remarkable thing about A.I. is just how successfully it blends the visions of two very different artists. Kubrick has always been perceived as an obsessive artist with impeccable craft and a relentlessly dark vision, even at the same time that he has been panned for failing to get layered, emotional performances from his actors: he’s the mecha of great film directors. Spielberg has also been known for his masterful technique and vision, even while being panned for his sometimes knee-jerk tendency toward shallow sentimentality. But I would argue that Spielberg never resorts to corniness in A.I.; he not only respects but absorbs Kubrick’s vision, at the same time that he makes this his own, very personal, project. A.I. may have been made on a huge budget, but it has the feel of an uncompromising, fiercely independent film.

I found the finale of A.I. to be mind-blowing, thought-provoking, and very Kubrick-esque, while others have — mistakenly, I think — taken it for a saccharine and unnecessary piece of Spielbergian hokum. (How two camps have taken up two completely opposite conclusions from the same movie is a testament, I think, to just how special this film is.) Either way, Artificial Intelligence: A.I. is sure to provoke discussion, speculation, and debate for a long, long time.