I Am The Death of Real: S1m0ne

Oh, fakery. How we adore thee. Simone is a movie all about the wide wide world of fakery, and the people who fall captive to it every day of their lives.

It's hard to tell sometimes, when you have a movie about fakery, just how fake the movie is itself. It's a conundrum of sorts. Simone can get away with being as fake as it wants, not just 'cause it's pointing the finger, but also 'cause at times, it seems to be making the case that some fakery is okay. I don't feel too terribly inclined to object.

So this is it, basically. Al Pacino is this bigwig movie director, or at least he used to be. His life is on the verge of being flushed completely down the toilet. His agent, who just so happens to also be his ex-wife, has just ditched him for the second time. All hope is gone, until suddenly he is given this incredible invention by a guy who just so happens to be a week away from making space tracks to The Other Side.

The invention, of course, is what we come to know as Simone. Which is short for Simulation One. It's a computer-generated blonde girl on a computer screen. She can be commanded to do anything from cry to mimic her "master's" actions and words. Perfect candidate to splice into a film, wouldn't ya say? Cheap, no demands, available for work any time.

I am the death of Real

In a turn of events that could only be fueled by utter misanthropy, Simone becomes the biggest movie star this side of the galaxy. And, of course, it becomes Pacino's problem trying to convince the media that she is real, even though no one has spoken to her face or physically seen her. The lengths to which Pacino goes to convince the world that she is real are totally hysterical. Everything from making Barbie shadows on a hotel window to driving a car with a blow-up doll in the actual driver's seat while hiding behind it. While Simone may be technically fake, there is nothing fake about a man's desire to preserve something the world has come to believe in.

That's really what Simone is about, though, believing. It's about Pacino's character "getting off" on not only his newfound success, but also in keeping the world's "dream" alive. He is having as much fun laughing at their foolishness as he is basking in this alternate reality where, seemingly, the entire world has suddenly fallen into peace. And everyone believes it.

As peace goes, the way Simone is filmed does seem to suggest a world devoid of all manner of fighting. People don't fight in this movie as much as they skitter around questioning, just trying to find the truth, while Pacino sits back and plays them all like a board of chess pieces. There is a cheery yellow and greenish hue to the film, a lot of scenes taking place outside, and a generally "cheery" kind of atmosphere.

Yet strangely, many of the scenes we see in Simone's movies (within the movie) are filmed with dark blue colors. Which seems to suggest that no matter how hopeful the world may seem to be out there, the actual source of the hope is a dark place. It's not the most emotionally appealing way to present things, but it is, ironically, the most real way.

In spite of the crazy twists and turns this film takes toward the end, Pacino does a surprisingly good job playing a character surrounded by an atmosphere of levity, but just screaming to bring the Heat any second. He can play the layperson, cry, and lip-sync to Aretha Franklin all he wants, but in the end, his character is going to end up right where Pacino always ends up.

Winona Ryder, with those penetrating eyes of hers, makes a couple of all-too-brief appearances as a star of Pacino's who is spoiled beyond all the telling of it. Catherine Keener plays the ex-wife, and wow, talk about the easiest role on the planet. All she's gotta do is react to the ensuing madness, try to look all professional, but try not to look like she's trying to look professional.

Evan Rachel Wood stops by to play Pacino's daughter Lainey. I kind of have this theory that she's a guy who had a sex change, but alas. S/he brings a great deal to Pacino's role, giving him the chance to squeeze in some fatherly time amongst his hectic schedule. But hers is a very strangely written character. I don't know any 15 or 16-year old girl who would have as lukewarm a reaction to a car for a birthday present as she does. But I suppose being in a rich family, she's desensitized to it at this point. The other thing that bothers me is when her Dad asks her about the first film with Simone, if she saw anything strange, she replies, "Just your brilliance." I don't care how sheltered you are, no teenager says that word.

I rented Simone with fairly low expectations. It just didn't sound like it would be that interesting. I mean, a computer-generated human being? Come on. I guess what hooked me in most of all was that Simone didn't completely steal the show. Heck, she was barely even a part of it. She is never "treated" as a real character, and I doubt the film expects you to ever sympathize with her, nor the proverbial man behind the curtain of her actions. It's all just a big experiment to see how people react, but they actually react the way you would expect anyone to.

As far as how you react, well that's the unpredictable part.