Brooklyn

Brooklyn

This film plays more like a fairy tale than a drama. Ellis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), the pretty young Irish girl sails to America on a ticket bought by her sister, stays at a nice boarding house and has a job waiting for her in a upper class department store (upper class for Brooklyn that is). To a real immigrant of that period these events would be fantastic.

The first hour of the movie is a bit slow and is used for plot set ups. Ellis manages to find her place in the boarding house with the other white Irish girls. At work she is mildly reprimanded by her superior for being too moppy since it depresses the customers. Her moppiness comes from homesickness. This is soon cured when she meets an Italian-American fella. At this point the film gets more interesting.

Things really get going when she returns to Ireland. Not to give too much away there are entanglements back home. Ellis’ has some difficult dilemmas straining her moral compass.

All the actors did a fine job. None of the roles were too demanding. Ronan had some emotional moments but no great tragedy. Domhnall Gleeson is infatuated with her. His most demanding scene was swimming in the Irish Sea. The Irish and Italian immigrants all get along (another fantasy). The movie had a brightness to it. Everything was clean, the streets, the cars, the immigrants, everything! The film literally glows.

This is a great date movie. The movie gets interesting when things go bad. Rather than being a victim of circumstance, Ellis’s injuries are self-inflicted. 

Ex Machina

Ex Machina (or as we say in Italian Ex Machina) is a movie about AI, artificial intelligence. There have been numerous AI movie from I Robot to Terminator. This movie is not as action filled as its predecessors. Ex Machina, especially in the beginning, is more cerebral. These films always have a Dr. Frankenstein question, “What have I created? Is it good or bad?”  The good in this case is Ava. She has a pleasant face, nice hands and feet and body parts from Home Depot.

This is basically a three character movie:

• Domhnail Glesson plays Caleb the code writer and house guest
• Oscar Isaac plays Nathan the CEO of the tech company making robots with AI.
• Alicia Vikander plays Ava (or parts of her anyway) the robot with advanced AI.

Caleb won a contest to spend a week at Nathan’s fabulous minimalist home. Caleb is part of a Turing test team to determine a robot’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior. The tests are conducted by Caleb in sessions with Ava sitting on the other side of a glass patrician. At one point Ava asks questions befuddling Caleb. As the movie progresses these plot turns increase transforming the movie from the original premise.

For most of the movie all we see of Ava is her transparent plastic body. When she puts on a dress and wig she looks very human. Accessorized AI makes the woman.  Her intellectual and emotional advancements are the heart of the movie. She is inorganic but evolves.

Isaac is the driving force in the movie. He is an arrogant egotistical multi-millionaire totally focused on his project and indifferent to collateral damage. Isaac plays the role with great passion making his character odious and detestable (he cuts a mean rug).  He irritably says Dude so often he could be a James Franco double.

Caleb is the brainy innocent, a bit slow on the take up.  He has good intentions but they are not reciprocated.  Nathan underestimates Caleb’s hacking ability and tenacity, which is the short coming of arrogance.

The film is not breaking new ground when it comes to AI movies, but it has a distinctive style and mood.  Instead of the Terminator you have Ava beguiling her way into hearts and minds. Both are potent.