Haley Joel Osment plays David, a boy who looks, feels, and acts like many other boys, but he is really a robot. He’s the latest product from Cybertronics, a company that specializes in creating "mechas," mechanical humans that have been designed for a specific purpose. David is the first of his type and is the creation of Professor Hobby (William Hurt). He is a mecha who can love, although there are other mechas, like Jude Law’s Gigolo Joe, who can perform the acts of love supposedly better than any human can. As the poster succinctly says, "His love is real. But he is not."

David is placed in a family who is on the verge of losing their own human child. At first the mother rejects David but then warms up to his nearly human actions. Soon she feels an attachment to him and goes through with the "imprint" process that creates a bond of love between David and her, something David will always have once he starts. However, shortly after the process, some things happen that force the mother to abandon David. He is then left in a chaotic world to fend for himself. David is traumatized by the abandonment and feels the reason it happened is because he is not real. So, working from the fairytale Pinocchio, David sets out to find the Blue Fairy, someone he believes can turn him into a real boy. If he’s real, he thinks, his mother will love him.

A.I. is an ambitious project that was once in the hands of Stanley Kubrick. It’s hard to say if Kubrick could have handled it any better than Spielberg because the material here is so complex and it’s really hard to imagine if this vision can actually be put to the big screen -- successfully. Spielberg partially succeeds. Certain things about the film are amazing. The fact that the audience suspends their belief for the story is a testament that certain things went right. As well, the special effects are simply astonishing and the creation of a future time is wholly convincing. I doubt a movie like this could have been made even ten years ago. And Haley Joel Osment as David can’t be underestimated. He is stunning in this film. I did not really see his talent in the one-note "I see dead people" role (The Sixth Sense) for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. In A.I. he displays a range of emotions and realism (yes, realism as a robot) that is amazing for an actor of any age. On the other hand, A.I. is not cohesive. It’s not clear whether Spielberg wanted to make a think piece or a melodramatic epic. The final portion of this futuristic tale takes place in the more extreme future than the world David was created in. It’s here I think the film really grinds to a halt and finds itself faltering amidst awkward narration.