Andrew Niccol has written two films (Gattaca, which he also directed, and The Truman Show) that deal with technology and how it can be used to take advantage of the weak.  One might say his latest effort, S1m0ne, is basically a backwards version of Truman – instead of the entire world duping one man, one man dupes the entire world.  It's a concept I was eager to see Niccol tackle, based solely on the dark and frightening ideas he explored in his first two films.

Sadly, S1m0ne is a concept that is much better in theory than it is in practice.  It certainly isn't as fully realized as one would have hoped from such a promising talent.  Rather than concentrating on the ideas that made his previous work so thought-provoking, Niccol makes S1m0ne more of a satire of the Hollywood system and the out-of-control vanity of its A-list stars.  As a result, parts of the film are corny, and it downright limps to the finish line.

S1m0ne opens with a situation very similar to Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending.  Here, Val Waxman is Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino, Insomnia), a has-been movie director desperately clinging to a career that's teetering on the brink of extinction.  His latest film, which is in the middle of production, stars a brainless beauty (Winona Ryder, Mr. Deeds) who quits because her trailer isn't the tallest on the set.  Viktor is fired by the head of the film studio, who also happens to be his ex-wife (Catherine Keener, Full Frontal), and finds his career has sunk to an all-time low.  Until he's approached by a very odd acquaintance, that is.

The contact is a cyber-nerd (Elias Koteas, Collateral Damage) who claims he has the answers to all of Viktor's problems.  Before he dies from eye cancer, the man gives Viktor several computer disks (including at least one in 5¼” format) on which he has created the world's first virtual actress (wait, Harrison Ford is real?).  Flash to nine months later where Viktor has apparently become some kind of computer genius, inserting the "synthespian" into his unfinished film and releasing it to worldwide acclaim.  The actress, named Simone after the program that created her ("Simulation One"), becomes an international sensation, despite the fact that she doesn't really exist.  The catch is that nobody but Viktor knows this.

At this point, Viktor becomes just like Truman's Christof – a media-savvy genius preying on the naïveté of others via manipulation and complete control.  He uses Simone's popularity to further his own career, but in doing so, she slowly becomes his Frankenstein monster (everyone can see this coming except Viktor). Watching him unravel is fun, especially in the scenes where he has two-way conversations with himself, but little else is.  S1m0ne isn't bad – it's just disappointing.

And contrary to what you may have heard (and what the closing credits lead you to believe), Simone is not an actual computer-generated "synthespian" – she's played by Canadian model-actress Rachel Roberts.

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for some sensuality