Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Please tell me that no one is falling for this stupid “synthetic actor” thing. I mean, Andy Niccol is a clever guy, and the concept for this film is a good one for a satire, but I thought it was pretty obvious after last summer’s FINAL FANTASY... we are nowhere near photo-real human creations yet. CGI artists aren’t about to fool you with a realistic human being. Simone is a character in a movie played by an actress. Period. They’ve been clever about adding in digital touches to make her “imperfect,” but Rachel Roberts exists.
And maybe it’s just me, but something makes me skin crawl about how Simone’s taking part in the press junkets using pre-scripted material by Niccol in which she praises him as a genius. I know... it’s supposed to be a joke, but it comes across as self-congratulatory and insipid more than anything. The minute a filmmaker starts singing his own praises, he opens himself up to harsh scorn.
Having said that, here’s Dr. Strangelove with his reaction to the movie...
Hey Harry, Dr. Strangelove here,
A few days ago, inspired by massive advertising all over the net, AICN's own Mr.Beaks commented how the buzz on Andrew Niccols S1MONE goes from "Mixed to Awful". Upon hearing that, I told him that my main concern with the movie lies in the Blair Underwood charisma problem Harry stressed that FULL FRONTAL had... that's a 500 Watt bulb playing a 500000 Watt Bulb. More like 50 Watt in Rachel Roberts’s case, and yes, unlike in the offensive press junkets that promote S1MONE like she's a real digital creation in love with her genius creator Andrew Niccol, in the real world away from studio spin S1MONE is actually played by Canadian model Rachel Roberts, and maybe Andy Niccol wrote that lovely press junket himself, and oh yes, there are hundreds of real, trained actors starving in New York.
Upon hearing my concerns, Mr. Beaks (in all his ageless wisdom) replied "that indeed is a concern unless the character is played by Naomi Watts herself". Joking aside, now after seeing S1MONE, I feel free to say that the lack of charisma on Rachel Roberts’s side is just a part of the movie’s problem. It’s unoriginal, uninspiring, and vastly unfocused. It badly deals with the issues that have been done in countless better movies, and at the end it leaves you feeling tasteless, for you haven't seen anything that hasn't been done to death before. Because of its flaws, S1MONE functions as a comedy somewhere in the range of the Albert Brooks Hollywood satire THE MUSE... almost complete utter pretentious dullsville.
Don't get me wrong, this movie is not horrible. It’s just mediocre. It has a few funny moments and a few other saving graces like parts of Pacino's performance, and I feel that if it had been released in, say, 1994, when there was so much talk of the amazing CG, with a doctored script and different casting it could have been a great, funny, original piece. But now in ’02, it’s just an afterthought after a flood of movies focusing on similar issues, including Peter Wier’s THE TRUMAN SHOW that was scripted by Niccol himself. There’s other films mixed in there like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, FULL FRONTAL, THE PLAYER, EDTV, THE MUSE, WAG THE DOG, SHOWTIME, AMERICAN BEAUTY, MAGNOLIA, HOLLYWOOD ENDING, STARDOM, VIRTUOSITY... the list goes on and on like the Energizer bunny. Like I've said, it’s been done to death, and S1MONE gives it no new spin.
Andy's problem is that he tries to touch on all the issues expressed in all the listed movies, and as a result S1MONE suffers from being unfocused. In one moment, it’s a satire of the modern American family. Switch, and in the next scene, it becomes a satire of the filmmaking process. Switch. Next one. Now it’s a satire of media. And so on and so on, switching its focus from scene to scene and leaving little space for any decent afterthought, with a bland ending as a result. Sure, it’s pretentious, but does S1MONE actually deliver? I wouldn't say so. Mediocre screams all over. It’s like Niccol didn't care much for the final result.
Besides the poor and utterly unconvincing performance of Rachel Roberts, Pacino seems to struggle to find the right tone for this movie. Never mind a few of his slips into overacting; at certain points, he manages to rise above the prevailing mediocrity of the movie and give a fairly good performance. Also worth mentioning are the always reliable Catherine Keener and the amazingly funny Jason Schwartzman.
In the end, all I can say about S1MONE is that it comes off as a pretty shallow satire that overstretches its focus and finally collapses into the bulge it thus creates. Though it tries hard to be funny, smart and subliminal, it’s light-years away from, say, UNDERCOVER BROTHER, probably one of the most non-pretentious, original, and funny satires that have come in a while. So, folks, I'd save those $9 until UB comes to DVD.
Wanna comment? Troll me to hell ? Send me your reaction, and I'd be happy to reply.
Oh, man... couple this with some of the scathing comments I heard from other online guys who got invited to the press screenings, and I’m nervous. Niccol’s got goodwill for GATTACA as far as I’m concerned, but if this is anything like THE MUSE, a film in which one of my heroes (Albert Brooks) fell right before my eyes, then I’m scared. I’m very, very scared.
"Moriarty" out.
