Human touch: Spielberg brings sci-fi Pinocchio story to life

E-mail this article Print this article Other links An 'A.I.' mystery made for the Web

It almost sounds like a joke, but here we have it: Steven Spielberg, who crafts crowd-pleasing blockbusters, makes a film based on a scenario devised by Stanley Kubrick, the auteur who once created a murderous computer with an unblinking red eye. To borrow a few clichés, the two directors are like fire and ice, war and peace, Simon and Garfunkel.

But wait: Spielberg has made a movie Kubrick could appreciate. A sprawling sci-fi adaptation of the Pinocchio story, "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" takes us into amazingly rendered future worlds of humans and the robots they create to serve them.

As in many of Kubrick's films, "A.I." puts machines in the forefront (think Hal in "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Dr. Strangelove's" doomsday device and Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut"). Filmed with a detached viewpoint that feels like Kubrick, much of it is cool to the touch, with sweeping shots and muted colors reminiscent of "2001." But Spielberg is the director of this movie, not Kubrick. And as he began to show with "Schindler's List," Spielberg is capable of making great, thoughtful films. With "A.I.," he's created a movie that almost fits among both directors' best work.

"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" * * * ½ With Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg from a short story by Brian Aldiss. Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and violent imagery. 145 minutes. Various theaters.

"A.I." begins in a classroom, with a leisurely discussion on the nature of love. From this lecture is born David (Haley Joel Osment), the first robot created with the ability to have complex emotions, dreams and desires. We're in the future, after the polar ice caps have melted (you hear that, President Bush?), which flooded New York and created a shortage of resources that makes building lifelike robots necessary.

Robots do our work, baby-sit our kids, cure us of diseases, provide sexual pleasure. But David is different. His job is to be someone's little boy. He is necessary because pregnancies are strictly regulated. His role is, essentially, to replace us (something William Hurt, as his creator, fails to recognize).

David is adopted by Henry and Monica Swinton (Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor), whose own son fell ill five years before and has been frozen until a cure is found. Monica is unsure about David at first.

Osment is convincingly creepy in this role. Until Monica accepts him, his emotional circuits aren't turned on, which makes for one strange boy. Spielberg uses this to create a perverse view of domesticity reminiscent of "The Shining," although in this case no one's crazy - they're just weird.

Spielberg, though he wrote the screenplay, used storyboards of Kubrick's to shape much of the movie's look and development. He gives us broken robots missing parts of their faces or limbs; a submerged Coney Island with its giant Ferris wheel; a later, frozen New York.

Visually, the movie is stunning. Unlike "Pearl Harbor," which spent piles of money and yet failed to wow us, Spielberg uses his own big budget ($90 million) to build a world that is seamless, believable and beautiful. The visuals feel like Kubrick spent decades on them.

But "A.I." is better because of Spielberg. By the time he got to "Eyes Wide Shut," Kubrick seemed to lose his ability to make movies with real emotion in them; he'd become too scientific. You wonder if he could have coaxed the kinds of performances that makes "A.I." so captivating.

The best is by Jude Law, who plays Gigolo Joe, a robot built for sexual pleasure, who becomes a big brother to David. Law plays him with a combination of spunk and tenderness.

"A.I." moves on without Law near the end, leaving us with David, his Pinocchio quest and a false ending that leads into a sentimental stretch Spielberg could do without. But while the movie's progression stalls out a bit here, we stick with it. Even great movies have their bumpy spots.

So is "A.I." a great movie? Not quite. The Spielberg/Kubrick union is not without limitations. But rarely do we get movies as ambitious or thoughtful as "A.I." For every moment it frustrates, there are a dozen that amaze and provoke us, asking us questions about the meanings of life and love. How many Hollywood movies can you say that about?

John Zebrowski can be reached at jzebrowski@seattletimes.com.