S1m0ne (2002)

Director:

Andrew Niccol

Writer (WGA):

Andrew Niccol (written by)

Release Date:

23 August 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A star is... created.

Plot:

A producer's film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Fraud | False Accusation | Indestructibility | Hotel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Al Pacino	...	Viktor Taransky
Benjamin Salisbury	...	Production Assistant
Winona Ryder	...	Nicola Anders
Darnell Williams	...	Studio Executive #1
Jim Rash	...	Studio Executive #2
Ron Perkins	...	Studio Executive #3
Jay Mohr	...	Hal Sinclair
Catherine Keener	...	Elaine Christian
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Lainey Christian Taransky
Jeffrey Pierce	...	Kent
Jeff Williams	...	Man in Suit
Rachel Roberts	...	Simone (as Simone)
Mitzi Martin	...	Premiere Audience Member
Carole Androsky	...	Premiere Audience Member (as Carol Androsky)
Christopher Neiman	...	Premiere Audience Member

Also Known As:

Simone (USA) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:G (Alberta/British Columbia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Brazil:Livre | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:6 | Netherlands:AL | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

City Hall - 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Al Pacino's character, Viktor Taransky, is based on Ray Kurzweil and his female alter ego Ramona.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The hard drive which holds "S1m0ne" data is shown to be without a cover over the disk platters. Viktor (Al Pacino) is shown to put his hands on the surface of the top platter when he inserts the hard disk into his PC. Any reasonably well informed PC user or repairman knows that a hard disk's platters are extremely sensitive to both dust and finger oils: exposing the platters to open air and finger oils would quickly render the hard disk useless. While we can't expect Viktor to know this, we can expect his scientist/supplier Hank Alano to have known this. Hank Alano should not have provided such an obviously unreliable piece of PC hardware.

Quotes:

Viktor: You made me, but I made you first.

Movie Connections:

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Soundtrack:

The Girl I Dream About

Embarrassingly bad

This film is so utterly naive in its conception, and so dismally executed I'm actually in shock that it classifies as a film at all. Never before have i witnessed such a cringe-inducing 'plot' performed so half-heartedly. Al Pacino aught to know better - I guess he was simply trying to avoid being typecast. Well watch out Al, you'll get typecast as someone with poor taste in scripts. Seriously, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

Simone herself is even more soulless and bland that a real computer graphic. In fact Pixars animated characters manage to have 1000% more life that there is in this drone-like performance. The computer effects - where they show Pacino 'editing' Simone - are laughable too - they bely a director who has never used a computer and makes no attempt to make any part of this film even vaguely conceivable.

The plot is dire, the dialogue is coma-inducing, and the twist is so predictable as to surprise only the very feeblest of minds. This is genuinely one of the worst, most flaccid films I have ever seen. I was actually looking around the audience in disbelief to see if they were as flabbergasted at its rubbishness as I was.

Seriously, save yourself some money - wait till it comes out on TV (probably within 6 months).

Then smash your TV.