Pygmalion for the cyber age

Film review: S1MONE

At first blush, the new Al Pacino movie S1MONE is just a fun and funny film. In fact it is a satire. The story is about a Hollywood director who hoodwinks an unsuspecting public into adulating a mysterious Garbo-like personality he has created, a woman of virtual perfection.

Yes, the actress and star do not exist–not in the flesh but only in virtual reality, in tiny pixels that create the digital image.

In short, there is no S1MONE, the person, only a moving, talking, crying, smiling illusion foisted upon the public by the director. The name is a contraction of SIMulation ONE, which as the director explains, is a computer code.

S1MONE is a must-see. It is a parody of the unreality and banality of showbiz, the voraciousness of the manipulative–and also ironically, manipulated–media, and the gullibility of a public obsessed with celebrity.

More than these, it is an update of the eternal, classic theme of man creating another man, a stronger, superior creature that recalls, on the pretty side, Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady and Shaw’s Pygmalion (the first, a musical, is based on the latter), and on the ugly side, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

S1MONE, Eliza Dolittle-Galatea, and Frankenstein’s creature are projections of their creators’ ideals, except that the latter has gone haywire. But similarities abound.

Just like in the macabre horror story, at first the master is in full control, but later, as the creature begins to have a life of its own, it also gets out of control. Even harmless Ms. Dolittle makes a faux pas at the Ascot race. To Viktor Taransky’s dismay, S1MONE soon has a life of her own, and not all the efforts he can make could "kill" her. Like Frankenstein’s monster, she has gone berserk!

Viktor tries to kill her in two ways–first by making her look like an obnoxious personality who gives just about every politically incorrect answer in a TV interview, but the public all the more laps her up. Then when he tries to "murder" her with computer virus, he is arrested and detained even when there is no corpus delicti.

Two key elements provide clues to the classic sources. In an early scene, the screen of the computer which Pacino’s daughter is working on shows the word "Pygmalion." Then Pacino’s character is named Viktor Taransky. The first name is also that of Shelley’s scientist Victor Frankenstein’s, a "victor" in playing God; that is, in "creating" another man.

So here we have two classic themes: man wanting to be God, and more earthbound, man wants to dominate, govern, influence another man. In daily life, we see this relationship in such tandems as father and son (or mother and daughter), teacher and disciple, talent manager and talent, office boss and worker, etc. You may include Gepetto and Pinocchio. There may be the desire to control and subjugate but essentially it is more of the superior wanting subconsciously to project his own superiority.

The twist in S1MONE is that there is no other human being involved. While Dolittle is flesh and blood and Frankenstein’s creation is stiff flesh and dried blood (ugh!), S1MONE is only pixels and borrowed, altered voice. And she captures perfectly the thespic limitations and insouciance of a virtual actress.

Actually, S1MONE does not possess the "nuances" and "soul" which Viktor exalts about her. Her "acting" may be compared to a driftwood (like the lead in the CGI-animated Final Fantasy or Angelina Jolie in the live-action Tomb Raider). She moves but she doesn’t have life – like a zombie.

On the other hand, as a beauty, S1MONE may be flawless, but she looks more like a Supermodel for the new millennium–long-limbed, full-mouthed, and blonde, and certainly not as ravishing and ethereal as the early Hollywood goddesses.

The portraits of some of these stars hang in Viktor’s office or fill up his computer photoshop: Marilyn, Ingrid, Liz Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Audrey Hepburn (clips from her movies show what a great star truly is), Garbo, whose legendary obsession for privacy gives Viktor the idea to keep S1MONE away from the public. (The movie does not seem to be partial to current stars; I remember seeing only the faces of Whitney Houston and Madonna, who both may have starred in movies, but they are known more as pop music stars.)

The only time Viktor allows his star to "appear" in public is in the form of a fog-wrapped hologram on stage, as though to suggest that look, when Madonna or Britney or Michael Jackson appears on a vast stage, how could the shrieking fans know for sure if the tiny figure they see at the center is their idol, or for real.

Here, director Andrew Nicoll makes another clever joke in the choice of song for S1MONE–the pop classic You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.

As movie satire, S1MONE keeps moviegoers completely entranced–and in stitches–from start to finish. Its appeal is enhanced by another major performance by Al Pacino as the film director, and the supporting cast namely Winona Ryder (she looks to me more beautiful than S1MONE), Catherine Keener, Jay Mohr, etc. And like S1MONE getting nominated for an Oscar for two movies–and winning both (a tie), it wouldn’t be undeserved if Pacino does the improbable feat of getting two Oscars in real life next year, one for the very recent thriller Insomnia and the other for S1MONE, where he is incredibly, hilariously Henry Higgins and Viktor Frankenstein rolled into one.