Review: 'A.I.' an eye-opening sci-fi fable

By Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" is an often-disturbing film about an experimental robotic boy who yearns for human relationships. Though originally developed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick, Spielberg inherited the project when Kubrick passed away in 1999.

Like Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange," it's a sci-fi fable that examines the ruthlessness of technology and emotional detachment. Though many of the sets are reminiscent of the spaceships in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," thematically speaking, the Spielberg picture that "A.I." most closely resembles is "Schindler's List": both movies are infused with the terror of facing down a society that views you as less than human.

Set in a distant future in which the world is overrun by rising ocean levels, over-population, and starvation, "A.I." follows the plight of David (Haley Joel Osment, in an astoundingly subtle, expressive performance), the first robot that's ever been programmed to love. David's creator, Professor Hobby (William Hurt), is aiming to build a device that can comfort couples who can't conceive children, or aren't allowed to by population-controlling laws.

TRAILER Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law star in 'A.I.' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   'A.I.' LINKS TIME.com: 'A.I.': Spielberg's strange love   EW.com: Answers to 'A.I.' questions   Note: Pages will open in a new browser window   MORE STORIES Clinton: 'A.I.' intelligent, but artificial       MORE REVIEWS Van Wilder High Crimes Big Trouble Panic Room Blade II Ice Age Showtime Time Machine We Were Soldiers Queen of the Damned Dragonfly Iris John Q Big Fat Liar Collateral Damage Monster's Ball Slackers Birthday Girl Monte Cristo Mothman Orange County Charlotte Gray I Am Sam Gosford Park Black Hawk Down Ali Kate & Leopold Shipping News Jimmy Neutron Joe Somebody Beautiful Mind The Majestic The Lord of the Rings Lantana The Royal Tenenbaums Vanilla Sky No Man's Land Affair of the Necklace Enemy Lines In the Bedroom Spy Game Sidewalks Harry Potter Shallow Hal Man Who Wasn't There Heist Amelie Focus Domestic Disturbance Tape Monsters, Inc. Life As A House My First Mister K-Pax From Hell Riding in Cars Last Castle Mulholland Drive Bandits Serendipity Joy Ride Training Day Don't Say a Word Zoolander Hearts in Atlantis Glitter Liam The Glass House Hardball The Musketeer Rock Star O Bubble Boy Jade Scorpion Corelli's Mandolin Apocalypse Redux Now American Pie 2 The Others Osmosis Jones Ghost World Rush Hour 2 Jackpot Planet of the Apes America's Sweethearts Jurassic Park III Legally Blonde The Score SongCatcher Cats and Dogs Scary Movie 2 crazy/beautiful A.I. The Fast and the Furious Dr. Dolittle 2 Atlantis Tomb Raider Swordfish Evolution Worst That Could Happen? Pearl Harbor Angel Eyes Shrek Calle 54 A Knight's Tale Mummy Returns About Adam One Night at McCool's Town and Country The Claim Freddy Got Fingered Bridget Jones's Diary Joe Dirt Along Came a Spider Blow Tailor of Panama Someone Like You Heartbreakers Say It Isn't So Enemy at the Gates The Dish Blow Dry 15 Minutes The Caveman's Valentine The Mexican 3000 Miles to Graceland Monkeybone Sweet November Hannibal Shadow of the Vampire The Gift Snatch Chunhyang Finding Forrester O Brother, Where Art Thou Thirteen Days Before Night Falls Vatel The House of Mirth Traffic Malena An Everlasting Piece All the Pretty Horses Miss Congeniality The Family Man Cast Away Chocolat What Women Want Emperor's New Groove Crouching Tiger,  Hidden Dragon Proof of Life Vertical Limit Dungeons & Dragons Unbreakable Quills 102 Dalmatians Just Looking What's Cooking The 6th Day The Grinch Bounce Boesman and Lena A Room for Romeo Brass You Can Count on Me Men of Honor Red Planet Little Nicky Wonder Boys Legend of Bagger Vance Charlie's Angels George Washington Lucky Numbers Blair Witch 2 The Yards Pay It Forward Bedazzled Lost Souls The Contender Billy Elliot Dr. T and the Women Requiem for a Dream Meet the Parents CyberWorld 3D The Broken Hearts Club Girlfight Best in Show Beautiful Remember the Titans Into the Arms of Strangers Under Suspicion Woman on Top Dancer in the Dark Crime and Punishment in Suburbia Duets The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack Bait Almost Famous 'Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God ...Be Back by Five' The Watcher Nurse Betty Whipped Love and Sex Bring It On The Crew Art of War The Cell Original Kings Of Comedy Autumn in New York Tao of Steve Cecil B. Demented The Replacements Wonderland New Waterford Girl Hollow Man Space Cowboys Coyote Ugly Criminal Lovers Saving Grace Nutty Professor II What Lies Beneath Loser The Wisdom of Crocodiles Chuck & Buck X-Men But I'm a Cheerleader Blood Simple Scary Movie Disney's The Kid Trixie Rocky and Bullwinkle Sunshine The Perfect Storm The Patriot Me, Myself & Irene Chicken Run Boys and Girls Shaft Titan A.E. American Pimp Gone in 60 Seconds Passion of Mind Big Momma's House Mission: Impossible 2 Small Time Crooks East Is East Dinosaur Center Stage Battlefield Earth The Big Kahuna Virgin Suicides Gladiator Me Myself I Time Code Where the Heart Is Frequency 28 Days U-571 Joe Gould's Secret American Psycho Keeping the Faith Here on Earth Rules of Engagement Return to Me Romeo Must Die The Road to El Dorado The Ninth Gate Mifune Waking the Dead Beyond the Mat Erin Brockovich You be the critic! Recommend a movie on our message board

David is placed in the home of Henry and Monica Swinton (Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor). The Swintons' biological son, Martin (Jake Thomas), has been ill, and has been cryogenically frozen until science can find a cure for his illness. David will hopefully ease the couple's loneliness.

Once Monica activates David's parental imprinting program, he seems like a normal little boy. He finds himself being drawn closer to Monica; his circuitry tells him that she's very much his mother. But when Martin is cured and returns to the family, David is suddenly treated as little more than a household appliance. Mean-spirited Martin also likes to trick David into doing dangerous, inexplicable things that force Henry and Monica to return him to the lab.

A little boy, a little machine

You can sense Kubrick's spirit haunting the aloof, deliberate first act. Then Spielberg's sensibilities slowly take over, with the overall tone mating his yearning "E.T." vibe with Kubrick's infamous semi-nihilism. The results are sometimes contradictory, but there's a sleek, high-tech dread to several of the sequences that's unlike anything in the Spielberg oeuvre. For most of the picture, his "little boy lost" leanings ("A.I." explicitly references "Pinocchio") seem to be pounding its head against a wall of despair.

Monica's emotions get the best of her while she's taking David to be destroyed. In a harrowing scene that's genuinely difficult to watch, she stops her car and tearfully tells him that he should avoid human contact and look for other robots. Then she abandons him in the woods and drives off.

Clearly, this isn't the touchy-feely fantasy Spielberg that we've come to expect.

Soon, David -- in the company of a dulcet-voiced teddy-bear robot who continuously follows him like a miniature guardian angel -- stumbles upon a nightmare vision of his possible future. Variously damaged "mechas" (short for "mechanicals") are rummaging for replacement body parts in an animatronic dumping ground. There, David meets a suave, handsome mecha named Gigolo Joe (Jude Law). Joe, who duplicates Gene Kelly dance moves and brags about his programmed sexual prowess, tries to help his new friend find the mother who deserted him. But Joe has problems of his own. In what passes for a subplot, he's trying to avoid being captured by the police.

At this point, Spielberg loses his footing to a degree. The next hour or so is filled with bizarre images and dazzling leaps of imagination. Unfortunately, the story isn't progressing all that much, as Joe and David pass through a series of offbeat, creepy vignettes that sometimes feel more like special effects showcases than useful scenes.

The two are eventually captured by a sleazy robot rustler (Brendan Gleeson) who enlists them in a terribly unsettling demolition show. Joe then escorts David deeper into the tawdry underbelly of their soulless world, an awe-inspiring journey that culminates in a Manhattan where the skyline barely rises above the ocean's surface.

The various story threads are ultimately pulled together by an enchanted finale that's Spielberg at his most unapologetic, poignant and mystical. There won't be a dry eye in the house.

Outstanding design

It's too early in the year to go tossing Oscars at people, but Spielberg's technicians have really outdone themselves this time. Production designer Rick Carter based many of the gaudy, neon-lit settings on Kubrick's detailed sketches and notes. He's created a world that's part suburban comfort and part carnival funhouse.

And Stan Winston's robots are nothing short of stunning. He and Spielberg seamlessly interweave mechanical devices, actors in costumes, and stunning digital effects. You get lost in a far-fetched environment that springs to full, frightful life.

"A.I." is easily the best big-budget picture to be released so far this year. Spielberg has made better movies, but he's never challenged his audience so deeply in what appears to be an utterly commercial setting. For once, you're encouraged to ponder complex questions while enjoying an amazing ride. It proves that, when a talented director puts his heart in it, you can have it both ways.

WARNING: Leave the kiddies at home! There are all kinds of freaky images in "A.I.," some of which might even upset adults. And the abandonment angle isn't exactly designed to induce swooning in 9 year-olds. Look for a quick cameo by Chris Rock, as a soon-to-be-destroyed robot. No, really. 142 minutes.