Film Forum

U.S., 2001
Directed by Steven Spielberg
With Haley Joel Osment, Frances O’Conner, Jude Law, Brendan Gleeson
Based on the short story by Brian Aldiss
Music by John Williams
Approx. 146 mins. DCP.

“Based on a short science fiction story by Brian Aldiss and originally a project that Stanley Kubrick had hoped to bring to the big screen, this is one of Steven Spielberg’s most ambitious and troubling films. Haley Joel Osment stars as David, a “mecha” or highly advanced robot. David is the first mecha engineered to feel human emotions. But when he is rejected by his “family”, David is forced out on a personal odyssey, accompanied by a talking teddy bear and Jude Law’s chiselled pleasure-bot, Gigolo Joe. Spielberg’s future world is densely detailed and…remains one of the director’s most interesting and underrated works.” – The Times (UK)

Reviews

“Deeply thoughtful and thoroughly fascinating.”
– Todd McCarthy, Variety

“Refusing to cuddle us or lull us into easy sleep, Mr. Spielberg locates the unspoken moral of all our fairy tales. To be real is to be mortal; to be human is to love, to dream, and to perish.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times