Simone

Review by Clint Morris

Combining the rudiments of ultimate fantasy while pointing the finger at the unscrupulous movie industry of today, Andrew Niccol’s Simone centres on a Hollywood player’s idyllic turn of events.

Find a star that’ll take you – as their discovering sentinel – along with them on their way to the top, ultimately giving you a second stab at box seat tickets at the Oscars and assured success in your filmmaking career.

But Colin Farrell, Molly Ringwald or Ben Affleck’s story this is not; instead it’s about something even less human than a commended Hollywood player – yep, seems that's possible – an actress created merely from the software of a computer programme, with talent to boot.

Director Viktor Taransky (Pacino) is in dire need of a hit, not to mention in dire need of an actress that will actually pull her weight.

Sick to death of his ineffectual lead actress (Winona Ryder), Viktor ends up finding succour in a recently acquired computer programme called ‘Simulation One’. Seems the PC gives him the power to create the ultimate actress – someone with all the looks, talent and reliability – that only Spielberg or M.Night could dream of.

But just as quick as the world is to accept and ultimately applaud this ‘newcomer’ made of pixels, some are even quicker to catch onto the fact that Hollywood’s latest film deity mightn’t be as life-like as she seems.

How is one to get out of this predicament?

A few years back, director Joel Schumacher announced that he had created the world’s first CGI actor for Batman Forever. A couple of years later George Lucas also utilised the expediency of the ‘actor in a floppy’ adding unhuman talent to his star wars prequel.

So for those that think “Simone” is purely fantasy, something that couldn’t possibly ever happen – think again. Ask any actor in Hollywood and they’re sure to tell you one of their fears is one day being replaced by a computerised .jpeg file for hire.

But in addition to being a nice dig at Hollywood’s new ways, Simone is also charmingly fun.

Combining loads of unruly pleasantry, exploration and a spray of romance, Niccol’s script ingeniously combines traits of his last two films, The Truman Show and Gattaca, while adding the joy of fairy flossy fantasy.

Pacino may be doing what could be the most cushy movie of his career, but at the same time I’ll doubt you’ll ever have this much fun watching one of his film’s in the last decade either.

Just like it’s titular star, Simone will have you in awe.

3.5 out of 5

Simone
Australian release: Thursday February 13
Cast: Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Evan Rachel Wood, Elias Koteas, Winona Ryder, Jay Mohr, Jason Schwartzman, Pruitt Taylor Vince.
Director: Andrew Niccol.
Website: Click here

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