April 26, 2015 -- This is one of those mind-twisting science fiction films about artificial intelligence, the meaning of life, humanity and all that jazz. Unlike most science fiction films, this one has smart characters, a smart plot and smart dialog. It also has romance, murder and suspense. This is a suspenseful, disturbing and thought-provoking film.

I drove over to Cheyenne yesterday to see this, since it wasn't showing in Laramie. It was worth the trip. The film opens with Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson of “Unbroken”) a computer programmer working for a large, Google-like company, learning that he has won a contest for a trip to visit the reclusive owner of the company at a house at an exotic location accessible only by helicopter. He arrives at the house to find the owner, Nathan (Oscar Isaac of “Inside Llewyn Davis”) behaving very strangely. He is edgy to the point of being dangerous.

Most of the movie takes place inside an ultra-modern house owned by Nathan. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Nathan lets Caleb in on a big secret. Nathan has developed in secret a robot who can think for herself. He wants Caleb to administer a test to see if the robot, named Ava (played by Alicia Vikander of “A Royal Affair”) is truly sentient. The idea is for Caleb to administer something like the “Turing Test” to see if Ava can communicate and behave like a human. The test was first proposed by computer pioneer Alan Turing (the subject of a 2014 historical biopic, “The Imitation Game”).

Over the period of about a week, Caleb engages in a series of conversations with Ava, who communicates and acts just like a human being. The robot appears to be an astounding triumph of engineering and computer programming. Caleb finds himself attracted to her. While Ava seems rational, Nathan's behavior becomes more and more erratic. When Caleb finds out that Nathan plans to scrap Ava and proceed to build ever more advanced robots. Things fall apart rapidly from there.

It is no surprise to find out this is a British film with European actors. If it was a Hollywood film it probably would not be so intelligent, so challenging and so uncompromising. There have been some Hollywood films on this subject with some similarities to this, such as “Her,” “Chappie,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Colossus: The Forbin Project” and a few others.

The three main actors are all exceptional. They are not well known to American audiences, since they are all from Europe and have appeared in some foreign language films. Oscar Isaac was in the Oscar-nominated “Inside Llewyn Davis” and a younger Domhnall Gleeson was in several of the Harry Potter movies playing the relatively minor role of Bill Weasley. Alicia Vikander appeared in “The Fifth Estate” and in “Anna Karenina”. Vikander is soon going to be better known in this country. Gleeson (“Calvary,” “Frank,” and “About Time”) and Isaac (“ A Most Violent Year” and “The Two Faces of January”) have given some great performances in the past couple of years.

While the pace of the film is a bit slow at times, it does build considerable suspense and there are some interesting plot twists. The acting is superb in this film, but the film does suffer a bit because there are so few characters in it. In this regard it is almost as constrained as one of those two-man plays like “Sleuth” (also a movie). Also like some plays, this film is very limited in terms of sets and locations. But those constraints aside, I think this film will stand the test of time as one of the best films to seriously explore the subject of artificial intelligence. This film rates a B+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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