Simone Review
by Dennis Schwartz (ozus AT sover DOT net)August 27th, 2002
SIMONE (director/writer: Andrew Niccol; cinematographers: Derek Grover/Edward Lachman; editor: Paul Rubell; music: Carter Burwell; cast: Al Pacino (Viktor Taransky), Catherine Keener (Elaine Christian), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Max Sayer), Jay Mohr (Hal), Jason Schwartzman (Milton), Stanley Anderson (Frank Brand), Evan Rachel Wood (Lainey), Daniel Von Bargen (Chief Detective), Elias Koteas (Hank Aleno), Rachel Roberts (Simone), Tony Crane (Lenny), Winona Ryder (Nicola Anders), Claudia Jordan (Simone Look-alike); Runtime: 115; rated: PG-13; producer: Andrew Niccol; New Line Cinema; 2002)
"Simone was not destroyed by a virus, but by an idea that never took shape."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Andrew Niccol's ("Gattaca") fantasy/comedy, which he wrote, directed and produced, is about a synthetic (computer-generated) actress named Simone created by a disillusioned auteur director who hungers to express his art. There's also a lame attempt to say something about the Russian auteur director Andrei Tarkovsky, which amounts to nothing much. But, at least, their last names sounded almost identical. When the director in the film gets so immersed in the Hollywood system after his initial hit, he now aims only for the limelight and the spoils of the system (Is Niccol being autobiographical?).
Simone was created from computer software, as the title name refers to that program which is called "Simulation One."
The screenwriter of "The Truman Show"comes up with a cute idea, and I emphasize cute, but this one-note film hasn't anything big to say after its joke is let out of the bag and the middlebrow laughs now become harder to get. As in life, what is cute can't stay forever. This film bored me after about five minutes, and just as I was saying to myself this isn't going to be as tedious as I think it will be (it was). After taking some harmless jabs at Hollywood, not punches, all the film could parody is a vain star throwing a tantrum about demands she made on the set, the phoniness of the studio executive board conferences, that the publicity networking is manipulated by the Hollywood machine, how easy it is to fool the public and how bogus is the Hollywood press conference that serves only the industry. And, lest I forget, how Hollywood is interested in making money from its pics above all else and not making art films. Where have I heard all these revelations before? Not satisfied to just satirize Hollywood and its unreality, its lies and fakery, Niccol puts the old formulaic hook in his story of the supposedly down-and-out director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) -- but before you mourn for him you realize that he does own a luxurious beach house and a Bentley -- trying everything possible to get back with his ex-wife Elaine Christian (Catherine Keener). She's now married to a cipher whom his sweet, computer savvy, teenager daughter Lainey (Evan Rachel Wood) resents.
Hollywood can rest assured that it has nothing to fear from this film. Simone is just as phony a production as the industry it's knocking. There will be no dark secrets revealed here about Hollywood.
If there's something worst than the beginning and middle of the pic, it's the lazily put together ending. According to formulaic Hollywood rules a happy ending is in order after such a royal setup, and the filmmaker complies despite the fraud Viktor committed in his need for fame and money. And, I almost forgot, Viktor mentioned that he cheated and lied to teach Hollywood a lesson. I guess I just forgot that in all my excitement over the pic's plotline.
I'm still looking for the teeth marks in the film. As far as I can detect, this film had no bite; and, it billed itself as a virtual comedy (satire).
"Simone" opens with Viktor looking haggard and beaten, his star actress (Ryder) in his film Sunrise Sunset walked off the set because the film was too arty and she's not pleased with the way he's handling all the extra clauses stipulated in her contract. She goes into a tantrum over her dressing room trailer not being the tallest one on the lot and that her demands of three opened packs of cigarettes in her dressing room at all times is not being met. There's also something about her phobia over seeing red drops of the Mike and Ike candy, as these red drops must be removed in her presence. The studio boss is Elaine, and she does not hesitate to fire the father of her daughter because his last three films tanked. She's gone to bat for him for the last time, as without a star actress he can't possibly finish the film.
But a madman with a terminal illness, who has been working diligently at his computer for the last several years, Hank (Koteas), even to the point where he lost one eye due to computer microwaves, has saved the day with his invention. He dies and in his will he leaves Viktor a videotape about creating Simone. He does so because Viktor is someone he deeply respects as a fellow artist. This results in Viktor editing Simone into his Sunset film and convincing the cast she doesn't work with them because she's temperamental and will only work alone with the director. But since she's a compilation of the best Hollywood actresses such as Sophia, Bacall, Audrey, Marilyn and a host of others, she's perfect in the pic. It becomes a smash box office hit, and he's inundated with requests for press interviews and in particular by a Hollywood gossip magazine and their persistent snakelike editor (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who taps his phone and follows and videotapes him wherever he goes. Simone's leading man Hal (Jay Mohr) and all the people in the studio are going bananas to see Simone, as Viktor cleverly thinks up ways for them to see her but not in the flesh. That's about as daring as this feckless flick ever got. The hardest task for Viktor was to make her also into a celebrated pop singer and have her perform such songs as Aretha Franklin's "Natural Woman" live before 100,000 screaming admirers in the LA Coliseum.
He then signs a big contract and completes his second flick with Simone, "Eternity Forever." But he feels pressured to keep up the lie and decides to kill Simone off. But he learns that once you create a legend, even if it is a false one, you have to stick with it or else you disappoint the masses. You may even get charged with murder.
The fun and games continued in the form of many insider jokes and the director plays with the audience's sensibilities. In some scenes he uses a digitized Simone, in others he substitutes a real model, Rachel Roberts (Canadian model). It's a tough guess to choose when Simone is a computer image and when the actress plays her, but the director gives clues and the techie freaks should be able to easily detect the real from the unreal. All that stir over who's real or not, hardly mattered anyway. What the film presented was a joke, and the viewer was the one being played for the sucker. As hard as Pacino sweated to play his comic part and as bland as Keener's role was as the industry shark, all it proved about special-effect films is that no computer tricks could substitute for such a weak and belabored script that Niccol gave these talented actors. Simone was not destroyed by a virus, but by an idea that never took shape.
REVIEWED ON 9/1/2002 GRADE: C -
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
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