A Movie That Asks Big Questions

A review by WCBS movie reviewer Robyn Carter:

The film, despite some flaws, does what most movies do not: it takes you on a journey in the dark which will leave you talking and thinking. Anyone expecting a sugar-coated, sci-fi fairy tale like "E.T.,," beware.

"A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" was the last project conceived by the late dark visionary, Stanley Kubrick. He had discussed making the film with Spielberg, who picked up Kubrick's baton after his death in 1999.

The result is a movie that is simultaneously spellbinding and heartbreaking but is always beautiful to watch. It is two-thirds the grim, bizarre, cold world of Stanley Kubrick and one-third the heart of Spielberg.

That's what happens in A.I.: 13-year-old Haley Joel Osment is created as an experiment and his robot character struggles to become a real boy to win back his mother's love.

He goes on a bizarre journey through a dark but stunning landscape in a brutal world that is part "Pinocchio," part "Wizard of Oz" on drugs.

Along the way, he picks up another robot, a robot programmed to be a sex machine, played brilliantly by Jude Law, who will aide Osment in his journey. Unfortunately, one of the flaws of the movie is that he is never really fleshed out.

But it is Haley Joel Osment's exquisite Oscar-worthy performance, which is the key to A.I., a movie that asks big questions, like what is the nature of love and what is the responsibility of those who create it.

A.I. is in many ways an art house film made with a blockbuster summer movie budget and dazzling special effects, which will definitely not appeal to everyone.

I found it extremely engrossing, despite the film's last 45 minute-long epilogue, which could have ended in at least two spots before it did.

I'm giving A.I. three out of four stars.

Written By ROBYN CARTER (© MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved.)