While I know that the movie "AI" (or "Artificial Intelligence"...if I say one in coversation, I'm always corrected to say the other one...oh well) isn't on many people's "Favorites of last year" list, I have to say that I've enjoyed it each time I saw it. Sure it has two endings, neither of which are all that great. Sure it's long and some of the scenes are so slow and methodical that you wish you were actually watching "Eyes Wide Shut". Sure the robots/aliens (depends on who you talk to, once again) at the end are really corny and stupid-looking.

Despite all that, I find that it's visually compelling and, even better, emotionally compelling, at least for me. I cry every time I see it. The emotions that are trafficked in that movie are deep gut things...unconditional love and the desperate need for some of it back. Also, I find that certain moments almost belie the detached nature of the ending and narration--it's almost as if we are supposed to understand, in a wink-wink way, that we need to come away from "AI" believing more in fairy tales and the supernatural than less.

I mean, the damn fish lead him to Coney Island.

And there's a few visual moments that are really creative. There's one in particular, where a falling David is reflected on the glass in front of Gigalo Joe's face...David's fall is shown, in reflection, from the pupil of Gigalo Joe's eye and down his cheek--the single tear that Joe can never have. It seems over-the-top on paper, but it's so subtle that I didn't notice it till this viewing with my parents.

Don't worry, I was snapped back to reality quickly afterwards. When asked how she liked it, my mom said, "Um, it was weird."