Spielberg does Kubrick was always going to be a fascinating prospect, with two very different directing styles being applied to one of the latter�s pet projects which Spielberg decided to complete. However, it seems that perhaps it wasn�t as good an idea as people first thought.
The film is essentially a futuristic Pinocchio, with a young android, David, being adopted by a family who�s son is catatonic and unlikely to ever recover. However that is exactly what he does and so David is rejected, and so embarks on a quest to become a real boy to win back his parents� love. The first act sees the couple trying to come to terms with having a factory-made son and is really quite boring. Osment is fine as the robotic replacement, I doubt any other child actor could do the role like he does. But he isn�t actually stretched that often and spends most of the time with an inane grin, as demanded by the script. The parents however, seem to think they are acting in a theatre, not a movie and so everything seems overly dramatic. Only the cool teddy robot makes it worth sitting through.
The second act is much better, with the spurned David being caught by a �flesh fair� intent on pulling him to pieces in front of a baying bunch of humans. Jude Law is actually really good as Gigolo Joe, who unwittingly ends up helping David try to become a real boy so his parents will love him again. However, I�d have like to have seen more of Joe�s female equivalent (Jane I think) who saunters past briefly! Anyway, this section of the film is much darker and actually quite scary, with some fantastic effects on the robots who are in need of repair. I thought the film was getting somewhere at last.
But no, the end drags on forever (almost literally) and, like Unbreakable passes up a golden opportunity for a bleak, downbeat, dare I say realistic, ending. Not once, but twice! Instead the film just becomes increasingly absurd and rambles on for about another half hour before a thoroughly unsatisfying, albeit welcome, ending. I still think it would be fascinating to see Kubrick�s version but sadly that can never happen. |
