A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2001 · Directed by Steven Spielberg
Original language: English
- drama
- science fiction
- adventure
The story
David, a robotic boy—the first of his kind programmed to love—is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David.
What it’s like
Cool, desaturated early scenes give way to a drowned, sun-bleached future, with flooded Manhattan skylines, cold white laboratory light, and the soft domestic glow of a suburban kitchen set against it. Spielberg's camera holds on faces and empty rooms for long beats, and the widescreen compositions lean on wide, lonely landscapes and a pale, almost clinical palette that warms only occasionally. John Williams's score is lush and mournful, with hushed strings and a fairy-tale melancholy that swells at the quiet moments. The mood is wistful and quietly unsettling, a fable about longing, loss and what it means to be loved, with a slow, deliberate pace and an emotional register that aches more than it startles. Intensity is moderate: some frightening sequences involving robots, a few sharp, brief scenes of violence and destruction, a sustained sense of dread about abandonment, and a tender, sometimes unnervingly sad core rather than gore. It suits a rainy evening alone, a thoughtful watch for people who like melancholic science fiction and emotionally heavy, character-led stories about a child who longs to be real.
More films like A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved A.I. Artificial Intelligenceand we’ll explain which ones fit you.
