David: Haley Joel Osment	Gigolo Joe: Jude Law
Monica Swinton: Frances O'Connor	Henry Swinton: Sam Robards
Professor Hobby: William Hurt	Martin Swinton: Jake Thomas
Director: Steven Spielberg

30 Second Bottom Line: An android boy, programmed to love, becomes part of a human family. What happens when that love can not be returned takes us on a journey across a darkened landscape. Part science fiction, part fairy tale and all imaginative.

Story Line: In the not too distant future global warming has eroded coastlines worldwide. Couples must apply for permits to have children. Technology has advanced to a level allowing the production of mechanical "beings" (mechas) that are so life-like that scanners must be used to reveal their inner workings or the skeletal frame of an organic human (orgas). These "mechas," or supertoys, perform service tasks or administrative duties for the humans.

Professor Hobby (William Hurt) has a better idea; his plan is to build a computerized "child" that is programmed to love. What a windfall for his corporation, all those childless couples…waiting. One of the corporation's employees is selected to receive the prototype boy, David (Haley Joel Osment). Henry and Monica Swinton (Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor) sit vigil daily at their son's cryogenic chamber. He is in an induced coma and frozen, until a cure can be found for his illness.

Monica is appalled at the idea when her husband brings David home. Henry promises to return David the next day. But she relents and agrees to let him stay a couple of days…just to see. The contract states that once you "imprint" the mechanized child to you, it is yours; and if you return it after that time, it will be destroyed. Monica imprints David to her and he immediately calls her Mommy; a word she's been waiting to hear for over half a decade.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a collaboration between Steven Spielberg (writer/director) and the late Stanley Kubrick (who worked on adapting it for nearly 20 years). The story is based on a short piece of fiction written by Brian Aldiss, titled Supertoys Last All Summer Long. The film plays in three acts, which I see as "Coming Home," "The Dark Time," and "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."

David's coming home to the Swinton's and his attachment to Monica, as mother, seems to be complete, even desperate. He only wants to please her. About Henry he appears ambivalent. David can't sleep, but at night he lays quietly "without a peep." He can't eat, it will mess up his internal wiring, but he pretends at meals. Monica gives David a stuffed bear named Teddy, a supertoy that belonged to their son. This bear may have been the forerunner to the imprinting process; once she introduces him to David, Teddy stands up and begins following him everywhere. Teddy sounds like a "scary bear" to me with his Hal-like voice (2001: A Space Odyssey). My first reaction was he should be named "Chucky" bear.

Things get complicated for everyone, including the bear, when Monica and Henry's son, Martin (Jake Thomas), makes a miraculous recovery…and comes home. David is not programmed to deal with sibling rivalry; and the Swintons are not capable of dealing with David any longer. Monica promises David a day alone with her, but her plan is to drop him off at the cybernetics laboratory that produced him. Return him. She knows he will be destroyed, so at the last minute she instead abandons him, with Teddy, in the proverbial deep, dark forest, with a warning to stay away from the "flesh-fairs."

David enters the "dark time." Lost in the outside world, David wanders. The CGI techniques used in this sequence are awesome. "Mechas" of various generations of development, some older models and others quite human in appearance, except for missing limbs or portions of their cranial area, pick through scrap metal body parts to retrieve needed appendages.

David crosses paths in these woods with Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a love machine (use your imagination…you're right!) on the run from the police. "Who let the dogs out?" runs through my mind as hell's cybercops blast into the forest, riding motorcycles blazoned with bared canine fangs, and rounding up "mechas" for the "flesh-fair." David attaches himself to Joe and they are soon caged and awaiting their fate, with other "mechas" to be destroyed for the pleasure of a screaming crowd, very much like those you see on "smack-down" wrestling. When David doesn't understand the destruction he sees, Joe tells him, "They made us too smart, too quick and too many."

The two of them escape when chaos breaks out at the fair. David is sure that his mother will love him, if he becomes a real boy, just as in the tale of Pinocchio the puppet. This is a fairy tale Monica read to David and Martin, and David convinces Joe to help him find the Blue Fairy in the story, so he can have his wish to be real. Gigolo Joe knows that all answers lie with Dr. Know, the wise one, in Rouge City. No leap here to think of the Emerald City and the wizard. Doctor Know, a surprising character, reminiscent of Einstein, reveals in a poetic puzzle where David will find the answers to his quest. This yellow brick road leads to the cybernetic company that created David-and to Professor Hobby.

Manhattan is now pretty much submerged under water, due to the polar ice caps melting. The top floors of a few of the tallest skyscrapers remain above the water line. David finds Professor Hobby and wants to plead his case - to become a real boy. But the realization of what he really is, merely the first cog in a long line of "mecha-child" supertoys, not unique, not special, nearly leads to David's demise. But there is no death if there is no life-is there?

What happens next to David provides an eerie similarity to Martin's plight earlier, his "orga" brother. The "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" sequence begins with an awakening, as David experiences contact with beings straight out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Their main interest is that his generation of robots knew and interacted with humans. They can "see" David's memories and they recreate his home environment to make him comfortable. David wants more. David wants his mother-to be with him and to love him. The final scenes leave you questioning; would you, if you could?

Tell Me More About It: A.I. is not a seamless meshing of Kubrick's story with Spielberg's screenplay. The duality of what we see on the screen may be each man's vision of the metaphysical world; incorporating both the humanistic and the mechanistic-literally. I don't mean to get so heavy, but this "grim fairy tale" demands it.

Haley Joel Osment gives a stunning performance. His eerie, calculated presence keeps you at arm's length. There's a satiating feeling to his neediness. Jude Law as the pleasure giving Gigolo Joe is perfect, but that's the idea. Perfect hair, flawless features. A crook of his neck and he provides his own music for singing, dancing and romancing. It's an unlikely match when these two hit the road, but like the Tin Man, Joe has a heart.

William Hurt's Professor Hobby, projects the earnest good will of a man of science, providing the public with what it wants, while keeping an eye on the bottom line for his corporate backers.

This is a wondrous production. The interiors are beautifully set and lighted, giving a cognitive realness to the "near future." Exterior scenes play with light and dark, and the underwater/underworld is magical.

Many references can be drawn from A.I. Yes, there's an element of Spielberg's E. T., but this is not a movie for young children. The heady violence of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is evident here as well. A rich tapestry exists here. Science fiction, fairy tale and myth combine to make this a unique film, examining genuine human emotions through artifice.

Haley Joel Osment: Pay it Forward	Jude Law: Enemy at the Gates
Frances O'Connor: Bedazzled	Sam Robards: Bounce
Jake Thomas: The Cell	Steven Spielberg: Shrek, Jurassic Park III