Archive - Wednesday, 26 September 2001


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Film review - AI: Artificial Intelligence

Director: Steven Spielberg. Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances OConnor, Sam Robards, William Hurt. Cert. 12; Dur. 145 mins Spielbergs filmmaking style has changed the way movies are made.

But, AI is not just the work of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick forged a largely secret friendship for 18 years. Kubrick, who had taken a 1969 science fiction short story by Brian Aldiss, decided in 1994, the story was better for the ET talents of Spielberg.

After Kubricks death in 1999 his widow approached Spielberg to ask him to bring Kubricks vision to life. Spielberg decided to write the script himself and was so amazed by the result he sidelined everything else.

AI stars Haley Joel Osment as a robot boy that scientists of a near future earth have invented to be capable of love. He is given to real parents whose son is in a coma. David begins a journey that asks:What is love?,

What is life?, Does love make you alive?. The answers may not all come from AI but they will be questions youll discuss for hours and days afterwards.

The cast is incredible. Surrogate parents, Sam Robards and Frances OConnor, are touching in their plight. Jude Law is pretty good as a Gigolo robot who takes David under his wing to show him the extremes of the world they inhabit. But its Haley Joel Osment, who gives a breath-taking performance of maturity beyond his tender years. He is an acting prodigy, no mistake.

Spielbergs decision to end the film as he does has caused concern to his studio execs and accounts, perhaps, for the less than record-breaking box office takings in the US. I liked it. If nothing else, I think Kubrick would too.