STARRING: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards, Brendan Gleeson, Jack Thomas and William Hurt. Based on Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss. Screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Budget $100 million. Running time 146 minutes. Originally released in 2001. Worldwide box office takings $235.9 million.
Originally conceived as a Stanley Kubrick film, Spielberg took it on after Kubrick's death. The plot sees horrifically cute poppet android, David (Haley Joel Osment) given to grieving parents, Monica and Henry Swinton (Frances O'Connor and Sam Robards) while their son, Martin (Jake Thomas) lies in a medically induced coma until a cure arrives for whatever it is that ails him, David is a new type of synthetic android, designed to look like a small boy. He is programmed to imprint on his human and to love them unconditionally and he does with his 'mother' Monica. However, when her real son is brought out of his coma and his medical condition cured, David becomes surplus to requirements and so-called loving mother takes David and his robot teddybear off into the woods and dumps him there. David is obsessed by the story of Pinocchio and convinced if he can find the Blue Fairy he'll be transformed into a real boy and Monica will love him again. So, off he goes on a quest with Gigolo Joe, an android sex worker (Jude Law) to find the Blue Fairy. Much hilarity ensues as the unlikely trio of chums fall foul of the Flesh Fair, get arrested by cops, and confront his own creator, in David's case, all before an aquatic date with destiny with the Blue Fairy in the sunken city of New York. Then it's just a 2000 year plot jump and a bunch of sentient robots digging up David to torment him one last time before switching him off for ever.
By god this is a creepy, unsettling film, and by far Spielberg's most nihilistic and bleak, it's clear he's channeling Kubrick for all he's worth and as a result the film is striped of any sign of joy or happiness. From the word go when we're introduced to this sunken world of post-apocalyptic misery we know we're in for a rough ride, it's a world of haves and have-nots, and neither side is happy about it. Haley Joel Osment was a remarkable child actor and he's expected to carry the expectations of the film squarely on his young shoulders and he does so brilliantly, it's just a shame David is such a shitty character, he might be a robot child, but the one thing you come away thinking about him, is how much a bloody good slap back of his head by with massive metal rod would help him. He's insanely needy, his desperate desire to be loved boarded on the psychotic and for a long portion of this film you just find yourself wishing him ill. Luckily Jude Law is on hand to grab the little scrot by the hand and drag him through the smaltz and towards an uncertain date with destiny courtesy of his dad, William Hurt and a bunch of highly advanced calculators who seem to spend their days digging up old robotic tech, revising them and then tormenting them just one more time. It's a fun game and I admire their vindictiveness, cos that little shit, David, bloody deserves it. Needy little fucker.
This looks good, but is very bleak, relentless, grim and depressing. There's no happy ending, despite what Spielberg might say about it. Visually it looks good and the effects are mostly practical or matte based, oddly enough no sign of the wretched CGI and actual A.I effects that have come to so blight modern cinema. Despite this being lower tier Spielberg it's still bloody well made and impressively mounted.
It's a shame we never got to see Kubrick's version of this, he was one of the greatest film directors ever and I love his films. that said, Spielberg ain't no slouch in the direction department either, so if it had to be someone picking up the reins, I'm glad it's him and not someone else.
Anywho, it's been 25 years since I last saw this, and I'll happily wait another 25 before I have to see it again, so in all probability, this is the last time I'll ever see it again.
7/10
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