The film's strength stems from two things: the tension between the quite different sensibilities of the film's two fathers, and the astonishing central performance by Haley Joel Osment as a robot Pinocchio. This is not, by the way, the performance of a child star courting an audience with cuteness and easy emotion. It's the performance of a remarkably accomplished young pro, a beautifully modulated tightrope act between heart and artifice. Osment enters through a halo of white light in a vanilla-colored robe, simulated skin covering his circuitry, fit as a fiddle and ready for love. As it happens, there's a place for him.
Jay Carr
Boston Globe
There won't be much debate, however, about the warm, ultimately heartbreaking performance of Haley Joel Osment, 12. Osment has been assigned a burdensome task, that of holding the film's center together as the story cycles through entirely unexpected, unwieldy changes of locale and time. And the remarkable young actor is entirely up to the task of playing David.
Philip Booth
Orlando Weekly
Quite a boy. Haley Joel Osment is a standout as robot David in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. His performance is extraordinary.
Liz Braun
Toronto Sun
I regard A.I. as the most emotionally and existentially overwhelming Spielberg production since Empire of the Sun. Both masterpieces are anchored by extraordinarily accomplished child actors, Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun and Haley Joel Osment in A.I. Mr. Osment had already earlier shown his flair for projecting the uncanny in M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.
Rex Reed
The New York Observer
Osment continues to demonstrate he is the finest child actor of his generation. He gives a precise, studied performance.
Lois B. Hobson
Calgary Sun
He is programmed that on the seventh word he'll imprint Monica as his mother and love her forever, and sure enough we see it happen. On the final word, Osment's face softens, and he's suffused with love. Osment is either the best child actor in history, or he's tied with Shirley Temple.
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Haley Joel Osment of "The Sixth Sense" plays David, and if you had any lingering doubt that he is a genuine actor -- not just a child actor, but an actor, period -- take a look at the moment when, right before our very eyes, his vaguely synthetic smile suddenly softens into a boyish grin, and David matter-of-factly refers to his implanter as "mommy." Amazing stuff. But that's not the end of the marvels.
Joe Leydon
The Examiner
Spielberg's mastery of craft and his top-of-the-line crew -- particularly cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, makeup and creature effects from Stan Winston, and Industrial Light & Magic sorcerers Dennis Muren and Scott Farrar -- create their own wonders. But the greatest effect of all is Osment, 12 years old and more talented than actors three times his age. In every scene he is expressing open-eyed wonder and the threat of danger, convincingly portraying artificial movement and real emotion.
Sean P. Means
The Salt Lake Tribune
Osment shines in this role. Nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for The Sixth Sense, he delivers an uncanny performance that could land him another nod, this time as Best Actor. Steven Spielberg positions Osment often in scenes where he's the only character, and it's up to him to convey or reflect what's going on. As a robot, there are character tics and reactions (Osment's "defense mechanism" when endangered is great acting) that require Haley to show a level of facial flexibility and control most adults lack (and no, I'm not talking about the FX scenes where CGI was obviously used).
Upcomingmovies.com
Osment again proves himself a superb young actor, not emoting in obvious fashion but strongly holding center screen for nearly 2-1/2 hours.
Todd McCarthy
Daily Variety Chief Film Critic
Best of all is the chirpy Osment, who not only proves the whole Sixth Sense thing wasn't a fluke, but logs in the year's best acting performance to date.
Planet Sickboy
Mr. Osment uses his wide blue eyes and ingratiating smile to suggest the uncanny creepiness of a living doll, and the film plays cleverly with the monstrous implications of its conceit. Fear is the underside of enchantment, and the spell of wonder. "A.I." casts is tinged with dread. His absolute and unwavering adoration — the way Mr. Osment utters the word mommy is both heart-rending and chilling — demands reciprocation.
A. O. Scott
New York Times
"A.I." is packed with freaky, haunting, generally amazing images, accented by one of John Williams' better scores. Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law are terrific, and the bleak story offers a cornucopia of intriguing concepts. Do not miss this movie.
Ed Johnson-Ott
A.I. boasts a beautiful central performance — Haley Joel Osment, 12, plays David with a kind of buoyant gravity. A.I. could be seen as a work of artificial emotions and genuine cinematic intelligence. It is more than that because Spielberg laid the burden of the film on Osment like a backpack, and the young trouper carries it. A meticulous actor, Osment made sure that "whenever David turns a corner, he turns it the same number of steps every time, the same movements. And the eyes were important. Turn the eyes first, then the head. Don't blink." You won't blink watching Osment. He has a, well, sixth sense for the hint of ecstasy or despair in a glance. Inhabiting such a character, letting humanity seep into him: that's not artifice. It's a fine actor's art, and enough to make any mother love him. Not to mention his two fathers, Spielberg and Kubrick.
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Osment is so good, he's almost scary, like a version of David programmed to act. He virtually carries this picture -- to the point where you think it wouldn't work at all without him.
Mary F. Pols
The Contra Costa Times
It seems almost unfair to give to Spielberg Osment as a secret weapon. As the kid proved in The Sixth Sense, he has an uncanny knack for getting under the audience's skin. The film's great sneaky trick is the way it poses the question, "Can humans love inanimate creations?" after you've already fallen for Osment's non-human character.
Todd Anthony
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The remarkable Osment portrayed the machine child David with implacable intensity.
Peter Howell
The Toronto Star
Haley Joel Osment plays this prototypical young "mecha" -- for mechanical -- and it may well earn Osment his second Oscar nomination (after The Sixth Sense) as well as a place in the record books as the youngest actor ever to be so honored by two performances achieved before he reached teen status (he turned 13 April 10). In any case, for all the brains and technical bravura behind A.I. -- and between Kubrick and Spielberg we're talking max on both counts -- the film owes much of its impact to Osment's exquisitely calibrated performance. He begins as a kind of perky doll: unblinking, fixed smile, slightly hyper tonic. His sophisticated mechanical innards (and determination to overcome his mechanical origin) allow him gradually and subtly, but surely, to become far more seemingly human by film's end. You have not seen a more heart-tugging, tear-pulling child than Osment begging over and over and over again for his human mommy's love since France's petite Victoire Thivisol communicated with her deceased mama in 1995's now-classic Ponette.
Susan Stark
Detroit News
A.I. is the Wizard of Osment. It features another superb performance by the incredible Haley Joel Osment-- an extraordinary young actor.
Jonathan Foreman
New York Post
Osment is so astonishingly good as David, with his mannerisms carefully calibrated to be just a little off, which gives his performance a consistently unsettling quality.
Glenn Whipp
L.A. Film Critic
On the acting front, the film belongs to young Osment, who is the single point of focus throughout this long flick. Haley Joel is a talented kid and does his best, building on the emotions that David develops over time.
Robin Clifford
The result is a film that is a beautiful thing to watch, even if twenty years of story development produces three kinds of movies that tell one story. Act One is a family drama. Act Two is heavy duty SF. The third we won't describe, 'cuz we don't spill the "Third Act". All three are held together by a wondrous performance by Haley Joel Osment.
Cranky Critic Movie Reviews
It's to note that this emotional touch could not have been attained as poignantly had it not been for the inspired thespianism displayed here by Haley Joel Osment, who has seriously impressed me at this point of his young career. A superb, loving, real performance which drives the film's significance that much deeper. And once you do sit up and pay attention, you will be enthralled by the imagination of it all, the strength of its narrative, its emotional spirit and its unique ability to combine great visuals, great acting and great insight into the human condition.
Berge Garabedian
Haley Joel Osment is David, and he is the reason I have awarded A.I. its seldom given fourth star. At any point in the movie, Haley expresses to us exactly what David is feeling, usually without words. His facial expressions are priceless. Watch David's eyes and count how many times they blink. They don't. Through the entire movie. His shift from mood to mood, from emotion to emotion is what Oscars are given for. The Academy undervalues child performances but this is one they should not ignore. The merging of the styles of Kubrick and Spielberg may seem odd. Is the result Spielberg's homage to Kubrick or is this the way he intended to make the movie? What would Kubrick have done differently? We will never know that, but the movie that I saw is an extraordinary dark fairy tale that I will never forget, nor do I want to.
Phil Packer
The Big Screen Cinema Guide
Haley Joel Osment: this remarkable 13-year-old is absolutely amazing as David, a robot, or mecha that has been programmed to love humans.
Paul Clinton
CNN Reviewer
Haley Joel Osment, in an astoundingly subtle, expressive performance.
Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer
Haley Joel Osment (2000's "Pay It Forward") is a revelation as David, even more so than in 1999's box-office smash, "The Sixth Sense," which led him to an Oscar nomination. At only 12-years-old, Osment's ability to convey utter realism and subtlety in each of his performances is remarkable, to say the least. This has never been so apparent as right here, in a difficult and complex role as a sympathetic character who is, nonetheless, not real, but a machine. Osment must carry the whole movie solely on his shoulders, and he hits every note exactly right. Simply no other child actor could have done as refined and impressive of a job.
Dustin Putman
The Movie Boy
Monica does “imprint the protocol” on the robot, and before our eyes the uncanny Osment transforms himself from an automaton into a needy child.
David Ansen
Newsweek
Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law take the acting honors (and of course Hurt is perfect at evoking the professor). Osment, who is onscreen in almost every scene, is one of the best actors now working. His David is not a cute little boy but a cute little boy mecha; we get not the lovable kid from "The Sixth Sense" but something subtly different.
Robert Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
The boy is played by Haley Joel Osment, he of the sad round eyes and brightened-little-boy demeanor. Osment is quite good in a part that's more challenging than his role in either The Sixth Sense or Pay It Forward; he's far less outwardly irritating than most little imps of cinematic renown and adeptly portrays the ontological melancholy that his character requires. It's undermined, however, by David's eventual escape -- eventually these bloodthirsty 21st century rednecks demand that David be released essentially because, aww, he's such a cute kid.
Deep-focus.com
But those plot detours feel superfluous to the heart of A.I., which ultimately rests with David. And it is the remarkable Haley Joel Osment, 12, who carries this fascinating, unwieldy movie on his small frame. Spielberg never wants you to forget David is not a real boy: The first time you see him, stepping off an elevator, he's blurry and out of focus, photographed to look like one of the spindly aliens from Close Encounters. It's Osment's job to make you feel David's desperate longing, his all-too-human need to be loved, and the actor accomplishes that through a subtle, delicate performance that is deeply affecting, even as David's obsessive quest edges into madness. It's an astounding piece of controlled acting (count how many times Osment blinks in the entire film), made more impressive by Osment's age, and it anchors A.I. in a way even the notoriously demanding Kubrick would have admired.
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald
Osment is good at showing David's mechanical nature at the beginning but gradually becoming more human as the film goes on.
Matt Easterbrook
The acting is superb throughout. Osment will be rightfully praised for a performance at once heartbreaking and courageous.
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
David now wants to be a real boy. But as a fake one, he's got some problems, and Monica abandons him in the woods with only an electric walking/talking teddy bear for companionship. This is the scene, which will get Osment another Oscar nomination.
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette
Osment was so good that it was scary. And it's a triumph as well for its 12-year-old star, who beautifully carries their fantasy on his shoulders. Through it all, Osment proves again that much of the success of The Sixth Sense came from the conviction and sensitivity of his acting, amazing for someone so young. Here, he's 12, and he conveys in numerous subtle ways the notion of machine turning human. If, early on, David breaks up a dinner with wild, forced, artificial laughter, much later we see him shattered by deep, palpable melancholy as he perches precariously on a skyscraper ledge.
Michael Wilmington
Metromix and ZAP2IT.com
What the director does have in his corner is two fantastic performances-from Osment, whose David ("If I become a real boy, can I come home?") is devastating, and Jude Law, whose neck-clicking, Cagney-legged Gigolo Joe-lover robot and fugitive from a frame-up-injects the movie with the eye-rolling mischief and humor it needs.
John Anderson
Newsday.com
Haley Joel Osment once again turns in a performance which belies his years.
Laura Clifford
The acting, as is usually the case with a Spielberg film, is top-notch. Osment, who is still best known for seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense, is compelling as the Pinocchio-like David. He imbues the robotic character with genuine humanity, but, by slightly exaggerating his mannerisms and some vocal inflections, constantly reminds us that David is not human. All of this is subtle; there are no herky-jerky movements and he does not speak in a monotone.
James Berardinelli
Osment is convincingly creepy in this role. Until Monica accepts him, his emotional circuits aren't turned on, which makes for one strange boy.
John Zebrowski
Seattle Times
But it's Spielberg, all Spielberg, who chose Haley Joel Osment to embody the proto roboboy, David, and to shape our sentimental response based on Osment's famous default expression of sad gravity, a phiz Dickens could love. And it's Spielberg, Hollywood's foremost shaper of baby boomer nostalgia, who gives Osment lines of dialogue that are utterly Spielbergian in their distillation of ''boyhood in America'' rootless ness: ''Mommy, will you die?'' ''I want Mommy to love me more.'' ''My brain is falling out.'' It's a tribute to Osment's very real talent that he manages to ditch the saintliness forced on him in the execrable ''Pay It Forward,'' and it's clear that the young actor is not just playing a variation on the Very Special Boy role that made him a star in ''The Sixth Sense,'' either: Osment has a sophisticated understanding of the shifts between the circuitry of ''mecha'' (i.e., mechanical robot) and ''orga'' (i.e., organic human) responses.
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
The film is never less than fascinating. Certain to open big, "A.I." has plenty for audiences and critics to glom onto -- a riveting, awesome performance by child actor Haley Joel Osment; brilliant production design and special effects; and a provocative theme that in these days of synthetic life forms and genetic tampering is worth re-examining.
Kirk Honeycutt
The Hollywood Reporter
Yet the scientist, played by William Hurt, proceeds and out pops Haley Joel Osment, an Oscar nominee for "The Sixth Sense" and the most powerful seventh-grader in Hollywood. He plays the prototype robot whose love will outlive whoever dares love him back. He is given to a couple whose son is in a coma, but until his emotional chip is activated he is just another R2-D2 underfoot, a bit of flesh-colored silicon furniture, shoved in a closet until needed. But he is just so cute and vulnerable, what's not to love? But Spielberg's soulful interior portrait of the young robot's confusion, played to a blankly quizzical perfection by Osment, feels on target.
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The movie was put on the fast track to be complete in twenty weeks instead of the full year that was originally planned because this wonderful young man (Osment) is quickly showing signs of physical maturity. He remains an effective center for the story, showing more depth than even the Australian actress Frances O'Connor in the role of the mother--whose emotional depth consisted of being either teary-eyed or ambivalent.
Harvey Karten
Arizona Reporter
An odd blending of "Moulin Rouge" and "Bicentennial Man" (Robin William's voice cameos), Jude Law, Haley, and the Teddy Bear deliver wonderful performances across a backdrop of futuristic fantasy.
Ross Anthony
The performances are also very strong, though it's the adolescent Osment who has to carry much of the load. A.I.'s challenging fare, and it's fascinating to watch the developing career of young actor Haley Joel Osment.
Jeff Vice
Deseret News
Osment continues his run of impressive performances; yes, he was good in “Pay It Forward,” even if the rest of the movie was dreck. At first his David is spooky in its/his precision. He's a Stepford Doll, staring at O'Connor as she drinks her coffee, or watching his “parents” eat dinner as if observing a back-and-forth tennis match. Pay close attention to the scene when O'Connor — also very strong in an emotionally tricky role — “imprints” him. Osment undergoes a transformation with a bit of acting that's breathtakingly direct and subtle.
Steve Murray
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Osment's performance is sublime, a subtle transformation from a herky-jerky human simulacrum to an entity with more genuine emotion than many so-called people (particularly middle managers or entertainment journalists).
Tor Thorsen
Reel.com
Spielberg manages some real Kubrickian touches in the first third of the picture, which depicts a home life almost as strange as that in "The Shining," and in the "Clockwork Orange" passages of part two. And he has in Osment a youngster who's actually accomplished enough to carry a picture on his own: many of his mechanistic reactions are on the same level that Jeff Bridges achieved in John Carpenter's "Starman."
Dr. Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion
Above all, the de-humanized edge to Osment's extraordinarily poignant performance is prototypical Stanley, and the antithesis of Steven.
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Osment performs a neat balancing act between David's growing capacity for emotion and his mechanical essence.
Robert W. Butler
The Kansas City Star
Central to A.I. is the deeply affecting portrayal by Osment. Though only 12 at the time of filming -- and playing a character some five years younger than that -- Osment provides a poignant performance of subtle grace. From his otherworldly robot movement at the beginning to his humanlike reactions that threaten to break your heart at the end, Osment brings David vividly to life. He makes us care more deeply for this robot boy than for anyone -- or anything -- else in the film.
Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle
"I love you, Mommy," says David, the eager and devoted lifelike boy robot (played with amiably wooden, near-human finesse by Haley Joel Osment). "I hope you never die."
Donald Munro
The Fresno Bee
You'll smile nervously as Osment cries to anyone who will listen, "Please make me a real boy so Mommy will love me!" while Law -- in a loose, jive performance -- tries to set the kid straight about just how much robots are hated by humans, how people feel contempt for machines they made "too smart and too quick."
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee
The movie's dauntless hero is David, the first android child to be programmed to feel love. As played by the remarkable Haley Joel Osment, he's the most beleaguered child-hero this side of a Dickens novel. Don't be fooled by the gentle ad campaign: This is no kid flick. It's impossible to imagine A.I. without Mr. Spielberg or Mr. Kubrick – or, for that matter, Mr. Osment. The character of David is rife with traps, but Mr. Osment, who just celebrated his 13th birthday, always reaches the right note. He's wistful but not mournful, pensive yet eager, mechanical yet soulful. And even in his most joyous moments, David is aware that happiness can be transient.
Philip Wuntch
Guide Live
The poor kid confronted death and human fallibility in both Sense and Pay It Forward, and once again he's been asked to shoulder a bruisingly cosmic philosophical burden. But as Spielberg has done before with young actors, he gets a terribly moving performance out of Osment, who proves to be a fitting reflection of the director's own obsession with his inner child.
Kevin Maynard
The terminally adorable but always surprisingly profound Haley Joel Osment stars as David, the world's first android programmed to feel emotion, specifically love for his adoptive parents. The most Kubrickian element of all may be Osment's incredible warm and fuzzy but quite unsettling performance. When David first arrives at the home of Henry and Monica Swinton, he may strike some as being full of overly mannered robotic boy clichés, until they realize this stems not from Osment over-playing the part but from David being over-programmed and Osment playing it so well. The kid never blinks. He moves with ever-so-slightly mechanical precision. His boyish laughter turns on and off like someone flipped a switch on his back. You want to hug the kid, but he also gives you the heebie-jeebies. Osment's finest moment comes when Monica goes through a pre-programmed bonding protocol literally to boot up the mother-child bond. His plastic automaton smile goes through a infinitesimal but significant transformation as his emotions kick in and his face becomes flushed with warmth and devotion. When he suddenly looks at Monica with moist doe eyes and calls her "mommy," you'll get goose bumps. But whether those goose bumps come from the suddenly moving sincerity of Osment's delivery or the preternatural premeditation behind it is enticingly hard to determine.
SPLICEDwire
From The Movie Emporium:
Wow. I saw this movie last night and melted all the way through it. It's classic Spielberg, and a very fitting tribute to Kubrick. In contrast to what a lot of people think, I believe the final 20-or-so minutes of the film are the strongest, they were certainly the most moving. I enjoyed this movie more than any other I've seen this year. Osment is a genius, Law is very entertaining, and Teddy just plain rocks. This is the first movie I've cried at since E.T.
Booberry
This movie left me bawling, and I don't like to cry unless I have to. It was so sad I wanted to puke! When David's mother leaves him in the forest and then at the end when he spends the day w/ her and she "goes to sleep", I was sobbing! It made me feel horrible, even though it was visually stunning and the acting (particularly the beautiful Haley Joel Osment and Jude) was superb. I think this movie was a masterpiece. Amazing acting, great special effects, awesome story.
Steph
The actors stayed in role fantabulously, and I think Haley Joel should once again be nominated for an Oscar. For his age, he takes on his characters very well and doesn't let an ounce of fake leak through any of his words. I admire this young 'un. His movements were incredibly jerky, exactly like a robot. I think I would've rather been left hanging then have the only happy aspect of David's life to come back and further depress him.
Jessica
A.I. was the best movie I have seen so far this year. Haley Joel Osment did a tremendous job of keeping his character acting like a robot. The ending that most critiques did not like is where I thought the best part came in. If the film had ended in the helicopter underwater, then the film may have gotten higher ratings but Spielberg would had just left you hanging there.
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