Here is a movie replete with ideas, except for those about what to do with them. Simulant arrives in theaters at potentially the most perfect time possible and by complete accident. The threat posed by artificially intelligent models in the journalistic, legal, and entertainment industries is significant, but such matters are not really on screenwriter Ryan Christopher Churchill’s mind with this film. He is far more interested in how a movie with such a loaded premise can be thoroughly and fatally simplified to become a tired sci-fi/thriller hybrid set within a world in which artificially intelligent robots have been perfected to the point of blending seamlessly into society.
It isn’t an enormously adventurous direction in which to go, especially considering that one of the cinema’s most unforgettable cult classics (and its many alternate cuts – not to mention a long-awaited sequel) gave us a pretty untouchable version of such a story. Churchill can only offer so much when we’ve seen all of this done before and better, and he doesn’t even offer enough to get us anywhere approaching an appreciation for the material. The characters are flat, the performances match that energy deficit, and the plot screeches to a halt, either to explain things or to provide an exhausting new twist, so many times that the experience becomes downright exasperating.
One grave misstep in Churchill’s screenplay is how it skips over an entire movie’s worth of context to set up a story with thoroughly insular stakes. Not only is this world cohabitated by humans and Sims (artificially intelligent robots built primarily for servitude) – the undocumented ownership of Sims is also quite illegal, so much so that Faye (Jordana Brewster) must “resurrect” her dead husband Evan (Robbie Amell) in total secret. Not even this new version of Evan knows what he is until his own investigation of some confusing memories leads him down an inexorable path. Never mind the ethical implications of replacing a loved one, especially someone to whom one was married, because the movie also has no real interest in exploring all that, either.
The thriller aspect comes in with introductions to two other characters. Casey (Simu Liu) is a simulant operator who first assists Faye with her scheme, then helps “Evan” to remove all technological inhibitions that might prevent him from accessing his human counterpart’s memories. Kessler (Sam Worthington) is a government agent tasked with hunting down illegal Sims, whose whole purpose in this narrative is to react with disproportionate surprise at developments that should be within his purview as an agent with this job. Worthington’s performance is the most committed one here, or at least one hopes the apparent exhaustion on the actor’s face is a character choice.
It’s all mostly an excuse for a series of predictable twists – about the true reason for “Evan’s” existence, the nature of Liu’s character, and the degree to which Sims do not, in fact, contain the capability of feeling empathy or compassion. Director April Mullen helms all this with some style, and the futuristic production design is nicely balanced, likely due to a lower budget, between some garish skyscrapers and sleek interiors. It’s not nearly enough to distinguish Simulant from being a run-of-the-mill effort.
Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
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