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.

Release Year: 2002

Rating: 6.1/10 (32,352 voted)

Critic's Score: 49/100

Director: Andrew Niccol

Stars: Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Rachel Roberts

Storyline
The career of a disillusioned producer, who is desperate for a hit, is endangered when his star walks off the film set. Forced to think fast, the producer decides to digitally create an actress "Simone" to sub for the star--the first totally believable synthetic actress. The "actress" becomes an overnight sensation, with a major singing career as well, and everyone thinks she's a real person. However, as Simone's fame skyrockets, he cannot bear to admit his fraud to himself or the world.

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

Taglines: On August 23, Meet a Real Fake

Official Website: "Amalgamated Films" [United States]) | "Eternity Forever - Amalgamated Films" [United States]) |

Release Date: 23 August 2002

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

Opening Weekend: $3,813,463 (USA) (25 August 2002) (1920 Screens)

Gross: $9,680,913 (USA) (6 October 2002)

Runtime: 117 min

Trivia:
When Simone's costars for "Eternity Forever" with whom she conducts a meeting via telephone introduce themselves, most of them have computer software/hardware manufacturers' names: Corel, Claris (Simone worked with her cousin Dell), Hewlett, Lotus, and the two that aren't companies: Mac and Hal, the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Goofs:
Continuity: When the hologram is created for the concert, there is an actual microphone present which is not part of the hologram. During the song Simone is singing with the microphone in her hands, the microphone is missing from the standard.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Production Assistant: Uh, Mr. Taransky, she's...
Viktor: She's walking? Don't tell me she's walking. She can't walk!
[heads off running]
Viktor: Nicola!

Uneven, but worth a good thoughtful viewing

Rating: 7/10

Victor Taransky is having a bad day... week... life.

A depressed visionary film director who can't compete with hype and egotism and whose obsession with his own artistic integrity has lead his career down a dead-end street, Taransky, with his career on the ropes, is contacted by a man offering salvation in the form of the perfect actor - a computer generated woman named S1m0n3. Simone's success propels Taransky's career into the limelight, permitting him to simultaneously lampoon all that he has come to despise in Hollywood and to vicariously gain acceptance in it for himself. Taransky's invented discovery successfully brings a few of his most cherished cinematic visions to the screen and eventually overshadows him completely. Yet Taransky finds himself even less happy, more lonely, and less satisfied than he was before Simone. Taransky discovers that he, in fact, has an ego of his own, and also discovers that success is meaningless without his estranged wife and daughter. Since admitting Simone was never real would jeopardize his own integrity, he embarks on a campaign to destroy his own creation.

Winona Rider is typically superb in her relatively brief role, and the performances in this film are generally good, but Pacino's acting is just a hair under his usual perfection in this one. I am not sure why I feel this way, but I'm not certain that Pacino enjoyed making this film. Part of the problem here may be the fact that the script does not allow for any obvious representation of self discovery for Pacino's character. Since this film is, for both Taransky and his family, a story of hard lessons learned about themselves, at least one epiphany scene might have been appropriate. Another minor problem I had with the script was the fact that it was hard for me to find any reason why Taransky would want to reconnect with his ex-wife. She is one of the most superficial and irritating characters in the film, most of the time. However, these are rather personal gripes and may well be part of some interpretive point which I missed. Perhaps, as in many other exercises in Hollywood reflexivity such as the excellent "The Player", the writer and director really did want to suggest that all that really matters IS performance, and the quality of the act.

The pace of the first half of the film will likely turn off many viewers, as might the sudden mood swings and the rather prolonged, steeply descending and deep denouement after Taransky discovers that career success does not guarantee satisfaction, and learns that to have integrity one must act with integrity. But, just as the film begins its long but rapid descent from irony and satiric comedy into dark drama, the pace picks up and the film grabs your attention, holding fast until the strong finish. This is a good film for a thoughtful, critical audience, offering critique of Hollywood, commercial film, celebrity worship and pop culture, but doing so without insulting its own audience's intelligence.

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