Simone

Film director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) is in trouble. Star Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder) has just walked off the set of his pet project, causing it to get shut down and now no one is willing to work with him.

Rescue comes in the form of Simulation One, an entirely convincing computer-generated actress with total recall of stars from Marilyn Monroe to Ernest Borgnine - in passing, one must ask why, except as a nod by Simone's writer/director, Andrew Niccol to the great character actor with whom he worked on Gattaca - and a database of movie moments.

Viktor uses Simone, as he renames Simulation One, to complete his film. It is a hit, Simone collecting the biggest plaudits. Initially Viktor doesn't mind his creation's success, but rapidly comes to feel she has become an out of control monster who must be stopped at any cost...

Watching Simone, I was reminded of Adolf Hitler's (in)famous remark that it is easier to get people to believe the big lie than the little one.

The central conceit of the film, that a CGI actor could become the world's biggest celebrity, is entirely credible. But it's all but impossible to accept that the world would believe Simone to be real, as the minor contrivances accumulate.

Even before she is even introduced, wouldn't Taransky have been able to sue Nicola for millions of dollars, a lá Boxing Helena? And wouldn't the studio have released the all-but-completed film, anyway? After all, not even Waterworld, or Heaven's Gate, had the plug pulled and footage shelved, as happens here.

More importantly, wouldn't the studio execs have major questions about Simone that Taransky couldn't hope to answer? And wouldn't the inherent unknowability and uncontrollability of the real world overwhelm his ad-hoc improvisations over and over again far sooner than Niccol would have us believe?

Indeed, the overall impression is very much one of The Truman Show, version 2.0. As a writer, Niccol has some fascinating ideas, but they don't bear up to close examination.

Similarities to The Truman Show aside, the story is highly derivative. William Gibson and Philip K Dick are obvious contemporary reference points, though as a lazy insert of Taransky's daughter reading Pygmalion - it all but screams SIGNIFICANT TEXT in a manner reminiscent of the naming of Jude Law's Gattaca character as Eugene - reminds us, its antecedents are far older.

However, in this postmodern world of genetic recombinants and simulations, its hard to take Niccol to task for this.

More difficult to excuse is his weak, unfocused critique of Hollywood. Imagine what a director like Robert Altman, or Jean-Luc Godard, working outwith, or in opposition to, Hollywood could have made of the material.

Perhaps the studio and Taransky would unite to maintain the illusion of Simone and manipulate the public together? Perhaps the studio would dispose off Taransky - someone who cites Cassavetes as an inspiration would hardly be their model manipulable director - and instigate Stepfordwood, killing off all those awkward human actors in favour of easily controlled bitstreams?

Alas, Niccol is too much part of the system-problem to offer much in the way of critique-cure.