S1m0ne

I wasn't going to mention this, but a few years ago I wrote the first third of a script with exactly the same premise as “S1m0ne.” Namely, a frustrated film auteur gets fed up with human actors and, with the help of an eccentric genius, creates a computer-generated performer who goes on to become a huge star. But I never finished my script, and Andrew Niccol (who wrote 1998’s excellent “The Truman Show”—which shares some of the same themes as “S1m0ne”) not only finished his, but got to direct it as well. The result, starring Al Pacino as the auteur, Viktor Taransky, has been bashed pretty harshly by the mainstream critics, and I am not sure why. It turns out to be a rather clever and highly entertaining comedy which is about, at times, the conflict between commerce and art, the nature of illusion and reality, the gullibility of the masses in our pop-culture age, the venality of the Hollywood machine, and the problems that can arise when the capabilities of technology outstrip our knowledge of what to do with it. The premise is completely fanciful, of course (though check back with me in a few years!), but those who dismiss the movie because of this are missing the point.

It’s no less believable than most movie premises, and if it gets some laughs at the expense of some rather obvious targets, so what? Pacino puts on a good show, which is impressive when you consider that half the time he is talking to himself, in the form of S1m0ne, which, by the way, is short for “Simulation One,” and she is played by real life Canadian model Rachel Roberts. The sublime Catherine Keener plays Viktor’s ex-wife Elaine, who also happens to own the studio for which he works, and from which she must fire him as the movie opens. My verdict? Niccol does a nice job, layering on the complications neatly and amusingly, and staying true to the movie’s logic. He falters a bit at the end, with a real deus ex machina twist, but redeems himself with a final note of utter, hilarious cynicism.