The Ultimate Love Story or a Twisted Fairy Tale?

Steven Spielberg’s A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is one or both of two very different things: a life-affirming story about the power of love, or a twisted fairytale that hits you in the gut with reality at every turn. Either way, I can’t decide if I liked it.

A.I. begins in Cybertronics where Professor Hobby proposes they create a “mecha” that can truly love. Immediately the ethical question is raised: If a robot can love a human is the human obligated to love the robot back? Furthermore, can a human love a machine?

A mere twenty months later Monica (Frances O'Connor) and Henry (Sam Robard) get to find out for themselves. They are the parents of a young boy who has been cryogenically frozen for several years. Cybertronics, where Henry is employed, bestows upon him the first robot that can love, David (the short but brilliant Haley Joel Osment). After initial disgust Monica becomes fond of David and “imprints” on him. Imprinting is the process of programming the robot to become specialized to that person. In the case of the child mecha it programs David to love his new mother unconditionally and without end. When the process is complete his face becomes emotional and he begins to call her “Mommy.” The process of imprinting is irreversible and Monica is told that if she decides not to keep him he has to be destroyed.

The inevitable happens. Monica’s real son awakens and is jealous of David. A couple of misunderstandings later Monica, unable to bear the idea of his destruction, leaves David in the woods. Inspired by the story of “Pinocchio” David sets out to find the Blue Fairy with the help of Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a “lover mecha.” David is sure that his mommy will love him if he becomes a real-live boy.

This film is fairy tale. But this is no Disney movie. For every fairytale turn this film makes reality steps in. It’s painful to watch David, a product of science, submerge himself so deeply in this world of make believe. He goes to see Dr. Know (voiced by Robin Williams), a computer who knows everything. When he asks about Blue Fairy he is told to go to the end of the world. He goes to the end of the world, and where is Blue Fairy? Not where David expects her to be.

David supposedly does become human. His search for the Blue Fairy proves that he has captured at least a portion of the human spirit. But I don’t agree with that. I think David is a complete failure. If he had achieved true humanity he probably would have given up. The imprinting process simply programmed him to love Monica. It isn’t love that drives David to find Blue Fairy, it’s machinery.

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