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pthompso
Reviews
Puzzlehead (2005)
Way Better than A.I.
I had the good fortune to see this movie at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and listen to the director and the lead actress in it answer questions. He spent 6 years editing and putting this movie together and it shows despite the obvious budget limitations he faced.
Anyways, the film itself is basically about a man who creates a robot (named Puzzlehead) that looks exactly like him and whose "synaptic map" is a direct copy of his own. The two look the same except for a beard. The man has a crush on a local grocery store clerk and Puzzlehead the robot is the one who ends up finally meeting her. She thinks he's a human etc. and the drama begins. The plot goes from there and i don't want to spoil it but basically there's a lot of twists involving who is the real man and who is the robot and which is ultimately the better person.
The film handles robot artificial intelligence issues really well and shows the progression of how a robot would likely think and the striking differences and similarities between humans and robots. The film makes the audience truly question who is more human. All the technological mumbo jumbo is easy to understand so you don't get into a situation where you're confused (like that movie "Primer"). But the plot does stay a little ahead of the viewer.
The film obviously could have benefited from a bigger budget, but there are an enough circuits and gizmos and filming techniques that convince us that the protagonist created a robot.
There is subtle humor throughout and the plot is constantly engaging. I strongly recommend everyone see this film.
On a side note: the lead actresses's dialogue was all replaced by some other woman's voice to make it sound more eastern European. I was surprised she was at the screening, I would have been mad.