Simone

Rating:
Summary: This Final Fantasy Doesn't Bite
Review: Everyone would admit its idea is brilliant. What if you create 100 % computer-generated actress? The perfect actress who doesn't complain about the huge trailer you took trouble to prepare; who doesn't require 10 packs of cigarettes (with 3 opened); and who doesn't command $20 million like you know who? What if a director whose works turned flops these ten years find that chance? "Simome" (more precisely "S1m0ne") gives a good idea, and stops there.

The film director in point is Viktor Taransky (mixture of Talkovkey and Tarantino) played by Al Pacino. Now his new project is dead because of the egoistic star Nicola (Winona Ryder), but he is given a computer program by an ailing programmer. 9 months later, Viktor is back in glory, with a new star everyone admires but nobody knew until then -- Simone.

As Viktor tries to hide her secret, her popularity ironically rises to worldwide fame. Trying to fend off the inquisitive press and his ex-wife and producer Elaine (Catherine Keener), Viktor keeps the show going on ... but where he is going to?

And where? The satire is there, but that doesn't bite, lacking new and original angle to tackle the issue of celebrity and movie industry. Director Andrew Niccol's detached approach to the Hollywood system leaves the audience wondering why this movie is made. Actually, what the film shows is very conventional, including the conclusion that is too good to be true.

But more damaging thing about the film is, I think, that for all its quirky charm of Carter Burwell's music, the film doesn't look real and compelling at all. I don't know whether choice of model-turned-actress Rachel Roberts as Simone can be justified. The film shows that people in India and Japan love her, disregarding cultural differences, but that is ok. But if you see Al Pacino, who didn't look like a guy who was sitting before computer, suddenly starts to handle the keyboard and manipulate the various images of Simone, we begin to disbelieve. When he announces Simone is agoraphobia before the people, and then she suddenly appears in a concert (in a big place, of course), we won't believe that at all (hey, someone must sense something is wrong!).

The "story" of "Simone" in short needs more details. If you want to tell a story, tell it better.

And finally about special effects. Those who bought recent DVDs (of "Matrix" or whatever) must know that any good CGIs require skilled people's efforts and time. Many fans now know that, and that kind of knowledge on our side will perhaps reduce the film's credibility. My low rating comes on this score. But of course, if the satire had been given more cutting-edge ... well, I said about that already.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea but the script loses track of the satire
Review: It would be easy to dismiss "S1m0ne" as an attempt by writer Andrew Niccol to have another success similar to "The Truman Show" dealing with the way the mass media distorts reality for entertainment purposes. This time, instead of dealing with a human being living an artificial life for the ultimate reality show, we have an artificial life created for the silver screen. Director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) finds his career is in a death spiral when he inherits a computer program from a mad scientist (Elias Koteas), which allows him to create a computer-generated star named Simone. The Catch-22 is that the more famous she becomes the more he is forced to maintain the illusion that she is real.

Certainly Niccol has a compelling idea here. As we move beyond Jar-Jar Binks to computer generated characters like Gollum and other wonders down the road I have no doubt that the day will come when neither death nor age will stop our favorite movie stars from making movies. So what if your favorite actor and actress never made a film together: it can happen in the future. Think of some of the remakes that could be made: Katharine Hepburn originally wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy to co-star with her in "The Philadelphia Story." One day somebody (or a legion of somebodies) could make it happen. However, Niccol is not really sure what his point is with this movie. Obviously there is some sort of satire going on here, but the target gets obscured.

Part of it is the gullibility of the audience, that embraces Simone no mater what she says or does as programmed by Viktor. He can make her, but apparently he cannot break her. Then there is the ability of the Hollywood starmaking machine to fill in the gaps and provide a history for a fictional creation of its own volition. But for me the problem is illuminated when Viktor hits bottom and is informed by his ex-wife (Catherine Keener), "You did not make Simone, she made you." At this point I am thinking that since Viktor not only created Simone but wrote and directed her films he obviously has some talent. I have seen plenty of great actors do good jobs in lousy movies, but there are few times you can find a great acting performance in a movie with a bad script. Ironically, the writer of this script seems to have forgotten that fact.

This movie is also saddled with a romantic sub-plot as Viktor's ex-wife is jealous of the closeness between her ex-husband and his secretive mega-star that really takes the bite out of any stinging satire. Besides, with Evan Rachel Wood playing the pair's daughter you know that she is smarter than the two of them put together and are not surprised when she plays a pivotal role in the film's climax. Rachel Roberts plays Simone (and models for her computer generated counterpart) and does an adequate job, since nobody could be as dazzling as the "real" Simone would be.

The best part of this film is early on when Viktor is designing Simone (picking bits and pieces of great actresses from various computer files) and as we find out she is the "perfect" actress. After all, Simone does not need a trailer, studio car and driver, anyone to do her hair and makeup, a stand-in or stuntwoman, never complains (even about doing nudity) and never changes the dialogue that appears in a script. But then the satire gives way to romance and assorted plot complications designed to drive Viktor crazy, at which point it ends up being rather uninspired. Maybe if the writer had not doubled as the director on this one there would have been somebody who could have made Niccol turn this script into something better.

Maybe some day down the road someone will come back and fix this film on their computer with Al Pacino and the rest of the cast as true synthespians. Wouldn't that be ironic?

Rating:
Summary: Just okay, but nothing special
Review: Simone is one of those movies that drive intelligent people crazy. For it to work, people have to act and think in such an idiotic manner for the better part of two hours, and as an audience, we just can't take it. A good definition for this is called the "Idiot Plot" by the esteemed reviewer Roger Ebert and it certainly applies here.

Simone does not have a bad premise. Al Pacino is a struggling filmmaker who at the beginning of the film has his main actress walk out on him for a bunch of childish reasons (her trailor is not the highest on the lot), leaving him with no actress. His fellow filmmakers including ex wife Catherine Keener think the project needs to be trashed, since the actress will sue if she appears in the movie in any way.

At this point, Pacino is approached by a nutty guy who eventually gives him a hard drive with a computerized actress (Simulation One= Simone). The man dies before Pacino gets the gift and although he is reluctant at first, he learns how to work it. The film is redone with "Simone" and is a smash. Pacino is a star.

The problem is that the world thinks that Simone is a real person and Pacino tries to keep this information secret. But since Simone becomes easily the most popular and famous person on the planet almost instantly, what person watching this film will actually believe that the characters in the movie will not figure out that Simone is fake when:

1)No one actually speaks to or sees her live.
2)There are no pictures of her at all.
3)It must be at least 6 months or longer that Pacino keeps up the hoax, because Simone appears in 3 movies.

Come on! The movie could have been good if it had been more about the premise of using a totally computerized character as a lead, not trying to keep it clandestine from the rest of society. With the technology available today, it is simply ridiculous to think that no one would ever figure it out.

Overall the movie was not terrible, but I won't want to see it again. I like Pacino in most things, but he just can't save this.

Rating:
Summary: SIMONE: Perception is Reality
Review: There is a fine line that Hollywood must draw between the seeming reality of what audiences see on the screen and what special effects directors make them think that they see. In SIMONE, director Andrew Niccol further blurs this distinction when Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino), desperate to finish his film when his leading lady (Winona Ryder) walks out, decides to use the gift of a dying computer expert that allows Taransky to create a digitized woman literally from ones and zeros in computer code. This woman is originally labelled Sim(ulated) One, or Simone. She can cry, die, and even grunt like a pig on command. As I was watching, I half expected Pacino to play Taransky as one who fails to see that his own creation is not alive after all, as Anthony Hopkins failed with his puppet Fats in MAGIC. Instead Taransky sees Simone as the means to restore the faded luster of his directorial reputation. He speaks to her, exhorts her to emote, but in a way that the audience is clear that Simone is the means to an end, rather than the end itself.

Simone saves his reputation, and in fact becomes the star of several other films. Toward the end, the plot bogs down in predictable ways, with Simone's adoring audience creating a target for their adulation, the result of which is to stir up feelings of inadequacy in Taransky that lead him to delete her from his computer's memory. It does not take much to learn that by doing so, Taransky involves--shall we say--legal difficulties involving her unexpected disappearance.

SIMONE is a mixture of satire and humor, with the more serious subtext of cinematic morality thrown in. In the scenes in which Simone appears in a film-within-a-film, she really seems more like a holographic construct than a fully fleshed human actress. Just to be sure that there really was an actress who plays Simone, I checked on the IMDB for her name (Rachel Roberts) and sure enough she is real (unless the bio was faked too). This is not a funny film. It is a one note extended gag that manages not to be stifling even when the loose ends of Taransky's life are neatly tied up. Comparisons with Jim Carrey in THE TRUMAN SHOW are inevitable, but Roberts as Simone never deviates from her puppeteer's hands, whereas Carrey as Truman was free to grow and learn some lessons about the way that media shapes public opinion. In SIMONE, it is Viktor Taransky rather than his creation who learns some hard-earned lessons about the way that reality, at some point, must be based on more than just a shell of perception. This fine film exhorts the audience to reach a similar conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: S1m0ne
Review: S1M0NE is the follow up from the maker of The Truman Show, but S1M0NE barely presents anything that is nearly as efficient or plausible as the Truman Show. In fact, a lot of parts from S1M0NE try to imitate the previous success of The Truman Show, but falls short in several ways. First of all, the soundtrack imitates it down to the basic melodies; secondly, it uses long scenes to make its points, and third it uses basic one color sets in contrast to vivid colors to alternate the visual eye candy.

But, no matter how much it seems like the Truman Show; it still has a different story. S1M0NE is a computer program made to resolve Al Pacino's problems as a directors. He gets really caught up in it, though, and soon his little point he was making on society becomes a super star.

The movie isn't funny. It's like Truman Show in a way, but then again; Truman Show's take on society was ironically funny whereas S1M0NE isn't ever really hilarious with the exception of one joke. Al Pacino ranges with his acting between tense, to anxious, to hyper. He doesn't really pull off a Serpico here, but it's irritating while Catherine Keener's performance is much more watchable.

The DVD is a cheap knock-off 2 sided with one side having full screen, and one side having wide screen and special features. I'm not sure if a SE is coming out, but you still might want to wait. S1M0NE is worth watching at least once, for a rental, and that's about it.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better Than I Thought
Review: The current reviews do this film great justice. This IS a nice movie, with a lot more depth than one would have imagined for the premise. I really thought Hollywood might screw up a great idea. They usually do.

Read the other reviews for praise. Mine is just to throw in a few extras. Kudos for the portrayal of the media masses swarming like sharks to ferret out the private life of a new celebrity actress, who exists only in a digital reality.

Pacino - superb as the down-trodden producer. Looks younger at the beginning of the film, and as Simone (his computer generated protege played by Rachel Roberts), wins the film world, his appearence ages as the stress of maintaining the facade takes its toll. There is a poignant moment in the film, when Pacino is creating Simone's voice in a taped interview. In that moment, he makes you realize he loves his creation, and at the same time, becomes aware of his own underlying Hollywood narcissism as Simone is as an extention of his own personality and creativity.

Wynnona Ryder surprised the hell out of me with a great 60 second performance. When she comes back to audition for a part as the sister of Simone in a future film, she makes Pacino realize that he has lost his human touch, in creating a digital starlette.

As to the Hollywood stereotypes; There is the logical father/daughter connection. The Hollywood CEO wife who re-identifies with her washed out husband/producer. There is the empotional rediscovery beteween said wife and producer.

But in all, it is Pacino who is the focus of the film (I would have thought Simone would have dominated, and thank you for letting Pacino's angst control the pace...).

A DVD well worth renting and watching several times. Comedic, yet deeper than the the other reviewers recognise, I give Pacino credit for being able to lift a good script into a very very nice film.

Rating:
Summary: Charming, But a Stretch.
Review: Simone is a cute and improbable tale of a movie director who's career is saved by a computer program that can has the ultimate animatic. As the story develops, the program called "Simulation One" or "Simone" is a drop dead gorgeous woman who Pacino uses to save a sinking movie project (because of a disgruntled leading lady who walks out on him during the filming of the movie).

Simone ultimately becomes the talk of Hollywood and the hottest woman alive. As the story unfolds the public demands more and more of her which is a problem for Pacino since she isn't even a real human being.

Where the movie really stretches isn't the length at which Pacino has the smoke and mirror's going, but the length that people are still buying she's real (Since no one has ever really seen her in the flesh). When Pacino is accused of her murder, circumstances that are absurdly funny, you start to go..."oh c'mon, how can a charge like this even stick?" Since again the evidence is all circumstancial including her existence.

To be fair, this film does poke a good bit of fun at the fickleness of fans and the movie industry. So from the perspective, a lot of far reaching moments may actually reflect the industries blind desperation at creating images that people can't seem to get enough of.

Al Pacino is perfect going deliriously fun to wonderfully eccentric. The perfomances all around are excellent. Simone is not perfect, but a lot of fun.

Rating:
Summary: Niccol does it again!
Review: A perfect adition to "The Truman Show", "Simone" is a movie that just had to be done one of these days. The premise is exactly the opposite of Andrew Niccol's screenplay for Truman: a failed director (Al Pacino) creates a computer-generated actress and makes everyone believe she's real. Very soon, Simone (short for "Simulation One") is the new America's sweetheart, winning the love of the whole world and an Academy Award for Best Actress. The fraud goes along nicely until Pacino's character starts to become jealous of his own creation.

If you've seen Andrew Niccol's previous film "Gattaca", then you know that he's very good for "what if..." scenarios. You also probably know that in his case, the movie is not that much about story as it is about concept, about the idea that supports the movie and the message is trying to present. Being that, "Simone" is not a perfect movie. Rachel Roberts does a wonderful job at impersonating the digital angel that is Simone, a creature too magnificent to be true, and the whole movie is directed to that same dilemma about what is perfect but "fake" and what is flawed but "real". What doesn't work so good is that a lot of the plot devices are far too unrealistic and almost unbelievable, especially when it comes to the skills of Al Pacino's character to run, by himself, a bussiness that involves thousands of people. What I mean is that sometimes Niccol goes too far in his own scam. But once you accept this, "Simone" becomes a delight. Roberts is extremely beautiful, and you can almost fall in love with her and really believe she's not real, one of the cases when you just get sucked into the movie's own premise.

The DVD edition is very good, for a change. No commetary, but two short featurettes that explain the making of the title character and the controversy around virtual actors, or "synthespians". Be sure to watch the deleted scenes, since (for a change) they actually enrich the story. A specific scene involving a devoted Simone fan who tells Victor about how the actress changed her life should've been included.

To wrap it up, "Simone" is a movie that you have to see for yourself. It may be not as sharp as "Gattaca" or "The Truman Show", but its clever premise and the excellent job that Niccol did in taking his concept to the screen make it a great catch. Like they say, almost too good to be true... or real.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Director's Fantasy...
Review: Those of us not privy to the inside world of the film industry, apart from the numerous gossip newspapers, magazines and television shows that currently fill the market place, most of us mere mortals wouldn't have a clue as to what really goes on behind the scenes. A majority of us, however, have come across a few prima donnas in our time, and can understand the difficulties in working with these kinds of people. Film and theatre directors must run across them on a regular basis. This wonderful satire on the film industry focuses on a unique solution for sidestepping a difficult actor by creating a virtual one, a perfect performer that a director can mould to his/her exact specifications without a single protest. Meet Simone: the most beautiful, talented and agreeable actor in the world - the virtual star, a director's ultimate fantasy.

Writer/director, Andrew Niccol, seems to have an on-going fascination with this theme: virtual people, environments and the perfect world. Niccol's original masterful screenplay, 'The Truman Show', is another satire on the media and particularly, 'reality television' that currently saturates prime time. In his stylish SF film, 'Gattica', eugenics is explored, and the speculative notions of what constitute the perfect human being. In ~Simone~, he not only explores the benefits of having a virtual actor working for a frustrated director, but focuses on the celebrity phenomenon, and the curious 'hero-worship' tendencies of the general public. The film is essentially a study of the media-generated 'image' verses the 'real'; or at least what we perceive to be the real.

As usual, Al Pacino put in a great performance as the creatively frustrated director - Victor Taransky. The computer-generated star, Simone, played by Rachel Roberts, was a stunning performance in its subtle nuances and her near perfect, albeit stereotypical, beauty. More impressive still, is the special effects made in creating the virtual star and the clever editing which made the scenes between Pacino and Roberts so believable.

This is a humorous satire on the entertainment industry and an interesting study on the phenomenon of 'celebrity', as well as a look into the possible technical future of filmmaking. This is not a great film but a very good one.

Rating:
Summary: Simone needs to be on my computer!
Review: Simone....a classic is what it could be called. Al Pacino plays a director being shot down. But then a mysterious man gives him a disc ( Simone). Should I tell you more?! Nah.... I'll let you buy this masterpiece and figure the fun out yourself. It can be slow to some people but to me... heck I love it!

This movie shows how not giving up can bring to the top and it shows lying can tear your heart up. It is centered aroung a great plot!

This movie is fun to see how funny publicity is sometimes. Buy and you will just die to see Simone!