Just saw this at an industry seminar that screened shorts that are spawning development deals. We first saw this quirky movie at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival which was full of odd submissions. This was one of the oddest. My husband and I usually agree on movies but this one was a split. He liked it, I did not. To many old people and not enough action for my taste. I warmed to it a bit on the second viewing, but not a lot.
As I understand it, this was a studio pitch for a feature based on a popular SciFi novel, so evidently it accomplished its goal.
Faye Dunaway looked fantastic and did an good job of a difficult script. John Glover gave an impressive performance as the down-and-out Bill Gates although I think the arc could have easily stood on its own as a central theme.
The whole bit with Brando was a bit unsettling but the write up in both the festival catalog and the screening notes stated that the entire movie was shot well before his death and that it took the director more than six years to finish it because of all the special effects. At least he had the good manners not to include Brando in the credits. The poster and the trailer are the only place I could see him listed.
The trailer looks like it is from an entirely different movie. My husband thinks that it was made early in the production process and the director never went back and updated it. The story itself is well told and the direction is good but it is much too big a story for a 20 minute short.
The endless effects are OK - not great. I realize that it was an out-of-pocket project but still, if you're going to do a special effects movie in this day and age, and screen it at Cannes, you should be prepared to invest some serious bucks.
The story is a basic Faustian bargain; the lead can live forever if he becomes a robot. Again, my husband liked it, but I did not. Of course I loved Chienne d'Historie which won the Palme d'Or for best short and my husband did not. So there.
