A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Haley Joel Osment plays an android programmed to love his “Mommy” (Frances O’Connor). When she abandons him in the woods rather than turn him in for destruction, he searches, like Pinocchio, for the “Blue Fairy” who can turn him into a real boy. Adapted from a Brian Aldiss story by Steven Spielberg, who inherited the project after Stanley Kubrick fiddled with it for 30 years, the film gleams and dazzles but fails to fulfill its own soaring ambition. Still, the ambition lends it nobility, and for once the awe-inspiring visual effects serve the story rather than vice versa. As for the big question—is it a Spielberg movie or a Kubrick movie?—actually, it’s a Brian Aldiss movie. Spielberg takes the story in whole new directions, but Aldiss’ vast and lordly vision permeates the entire film.