---
title: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence"
year: 2001
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence"
fi1m_id: "a-i-artificial-intelligence"
imdb_id: "tt0212720"
tmdb_id: 644
wikidata_id: "Q221113"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 61
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-14"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:27.813569+00:00"
region: "FR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Directed by Steven Spielberg · 2h 26m · CNC TP · Drama, Science Fiction, Adventure

## Identity

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** a-i-artificial-intelligence
- **IMDb ID:** tt0212720
- **TMDB ID:** 644
- **Wikidata ID:** Q221113
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/644, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q221113

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 61 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* Somebody built a child who cannot stop loving and apparently thought the adults could be trusted

> Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction fable is deeply moving, despite its wandering story and over-explanation. Haley Joel Osment makes a manufactured child’s hunger for love painfully convincing.

## Synopsis

David (Haley Joel Osment) is an artificial boy, built to look eleven and programmed to love. His need for affection brings him into a human world where being made rather than born changes how others see him. Around him are Monica Swinton (Frances O’Connor), Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) and Martin Swinton (Jake Thomas). Jude Law plays Gigolo Joe, while William Hurt plays Professor Hobby. As David confronts rejection and loneliness, he searches for a place among people whose capacity to love is less certain than his own.

## Review

*A.I. Artificial Intelligence* is a deeply moving science-fiction film with a story that does not always know when to move on. Steven Spielberg takes a robot boy programmed to love and asks what responsibility that places on anyone receiving his affection. It is an uncomfortable basis for an adventure, and we would not mistake the presence of a child for a promise of reassurance. The film earns our sympathy for David before it asks us to think through the consequences of making him.

Haley Joel Osment gives David an earnestness that becomes distressing because he seems incapable of protecting himself. We were moved more than we expected by his need for love: knowing that somebody has put it there does nothing to lessen his vulnerability. Osment makes us worry about the child without forgetting that he has been manufactured. There is nothing knowing in the performance to reassure us that David can shrug off rejection.

Janusz Kamiński’s photography encourages that uneasy scrutiny, making David look slightly out of place in the world around him. We keep looking at the boy, trying to decide what difference his artificiality should make to our response. Rick Carter’s production design gives the imagined future enough substance for the question to survive outside the dialogue. The scale and intricacy are impressive, but the images are most effective when they leave us feeling that David has no secure place in them. Spielberg makes this invented world inhospitable enough that exploring it becomes a source of anxiety.

Jude Law’s Gigolo Joe provides a welcome change of energy around that central performance. Law understands the usefulness of charm in a film so preoccupied with need, and his presence keeps the solemnity from becoming uniform. John Williams’s score is less consistently helpful. It gives David’s longing a tenderness we respond to, then sometimes presses the emotion when Osment has already done enough. We wanted more room to sit with the discomfort before the music encouraged us to feel for him.

The larger weakness is the episodic screenplay, also Spielberg’s, which repeatedly makes the film feel as though it is starting again. Michael Kahn’s editing cannot quite make its separate stretches gather force as a single journey. At 146 minutes, the repeated explanations become wearing, especially when the images have already made the emotional situation clear. The narration is an unnecessary reassurance that we have understood. Spielberg seems reluctant to let an unsettling image or a difficult question go unexplained.

The critical consensus is substantially cooler than our judgement, and we think it gives the uneven storytelling too much weight. The objection that a manufactured child cannot deserve such feeling seems particularly unpersuasive. People made him capable of attachment, and that surely increases their obligation to him. As science fiction, the film is at its most disturbing when it asks us to consider that responsibility without allowing us to dismiss David as equipment.

Do not approach this as a comforting adventure simply because its central figure looks eleven. The question of what adults owe a child has a sharpness here that the technical wonders cannot soften. Choose it when neither of you needs cheering up.

*Fi1m score 84, published 14 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews lean towards admiration, but agreement is stronger on the film’s ambition than on its success. Praise clusters around the visual effects, the unsettling imagery and Osment’s central performance, with several critics finding genuine feeling in the robot boy’s search for love. Supporters see Spielberg’s combination of dark science fiction and fairy tale as a demanding exploration of humanity, abandonment and the need to be loved, rather than a reassuring children’s adventure.

The spread is wide, and the chief dispute concerns whether the emotion is earned. Several reviews find the ending over-sentimental or overextended, while others question how comfortably Spielberg’s sensibility fits with Kubrick’s. RogerEbert.com admires the technical achievement but doubts the invitation to invest in a machine’s simulated love; The Guardian dissents more sharply, rejecting both the futuristic imagery and the child performance. Even some sympathetic accounts find the narration intrusive or the storytelling too explanatory.

## Straight answers

**How long is A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and what is it rated?**

*A.I. Artificial Intelligence* runs 2h 26m and is rated TP by the CNC in France. It is a drama and science fiction film.

**Where can I watch A.I. Artificial Intelligence in France?**

*A.I. Artificial Intelligence* is streaming on Paramount+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in France, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from €2.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**What should I watch after A.I. Artificial Intelligence?**

After *A.I. Artificial Intelligence*, try [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) (1973, Fi1m 87): For another child’s view of an adult world that offers little reassurance. Then [*Edward Scissorhands*](https://film.one/film/edward-scissorhands) (1990, Fi1m 83): Another manufactured innocent discovers how quickly human affection acquires conditions and limits; and [*The Tale of the Princess Kaguya*](https://film.one/film/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya) (2013, Fi1m 84): For another child whose longing is made painful by the adults around her.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Empire**, Ian Nathan (85/100, inferred): The critic sees it as a profound and visually astounding work of Spielberg's genius, blending Kubrickian elements with emotional depth into an unusual masterpiece. The film's philosophical questions about love and reality, along with its CGI and performances, are singled out for praise despite a divisive ending. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/artificial-intelligence-review/)
- **Radio Times**, Kilmeny Fane-Saunders (4/5): The critic describes it as an ambitious dark-toned Pinocchio fable with terrific special effects, highlighting Osment's fine performance and noting it is one of Spielberg's bleakest works rather than a feel-good romp. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-2lq0jx/ai-artificial-intelligence/)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (80/100, inferred): The film is a wild, ambitious inquiry into humanity's origins, nature, and end, delivered through the story of a robot boy programmed to love. Despite intrusive narration and occasional over-explanation, its virtues—strong performances and striking imagery—make it a defining, moving work of its time. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/a-i-artificial-intelligence-1798192684)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (★★★): The film is ambitious and technically masterful with provocative ideas and wondrous sights, but it miscalculates by asking viewers to invest emotionally in a machine character whose 'love' is only simulated. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ai-artificial-intelligence-2001)
- **Total Film** (65/100, inferred): The review calls it flawed genius that is bewitching and gripping yet ultimately cold and without emotional pulse due to an over-sentimental finale. Spielberg's daring visual and thematic ambition mixed with Kubrick influences is highlighted as both visionary and frustrating. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-review/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (45/100, inferred): Spielberg's film is a strange, muddled mess of multiple episodes that piles on sappy codas and wish-fulfillment after a haunting Kubrickian core. It lingers due to emotional power and visual style but is undermined by distancing artificiality and excess baggage. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence/)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (40/100, inferred): The imagery and direction are precise, haunting and masterful in places, but the film is a ponderous death-of-the-world fantasy that milks sentiment from an Oedipal robot and drains vitality from its premise. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/07/02/faceoff)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (20/100, inferred): The film is a terrible disappointment, a quaint and dated vision of the future with unappealing child acting. It awkwardly combines Kubrick's and Spielberg's sensibilities into a soggy, creaky mess. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/21/1)
- **Screen Daily**: The review finds the film one of Spielberg's most ambitious, intelligent and problematic, praising its captivating and emotionally touching qualities, Osment's central performance and visual innovation while noting issues blending sensibilities. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/406024.article)
- **Sight and Sound**, Philip Strick: The critic explores the film's origins as a Kubrick project passed to Spielberg and its Pinocchio-like themes of illusion, love and reality. He praises the ambition, visual effects and crowd scenes while noting it is too soft-centred with an uneasy alien resolution. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1952)
- **The New York Times**, A. O. Scott (Critic's Pick): Spielberg has made his most disturbing, complex and intellectually challenging boy's adventure story, melding Kubrick's chilly style with his own sensibility into a layered fairy tale about abandonment, love and what it means to be real and mortal. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/29/movies/film-review-do-androids-long-for-mom.html)
- **Time Out**, TCh: The review calls the film a clumsy but ambitious and personal blend of cerebral sci-fi and fairytale, praising its beauty, wonders, miraculous SFX and anguished expression of rejection, loneliness and love. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/ai-artificial-intelligence)

## Details

- **Director:** Steven Spielberg
- **Director:** Steven Spielberg
- **Screenplay:** Steven Spielberg
- **Cinematography:** Janusz Kamiński
- **Editor:** Michael Kahn
- **Music:** John Williams
- **Production design:** Rick Carter
- **Costume design:** Bob Ringwood
- **Producer:** Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Bonnie Curtis
- **Cast:** Haley Joel Osment as David; Jude Law as Gigolo Joe; Frances O'Connor as Monica Swinton; Sam Robards as Henry Swinton; Jake Thomas as Martin Swinton; William Hurt as Professor Hobby; Ken Leung as Syatyoo-Sama; Clark Gregg as Supernerd
- **Runtime:** 2h 26m
- **Certificate (CNC):** TP
- **Release (France):** 24 October 2001
- **Genres:** Drama, Science Fiction, Adventure
- **Budget:** $100 million
- **Box office:** $236 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t_SyEaBNnc

## Where to watch in France

- Paramount+: streaming, hd
- Netflix: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Amazon Prime Video: rent €2.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy €7.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-14.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, EC, ES, FR, GB, GR, IE, IL, IT, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, RO, SE, TR, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2002: Best Original Score (nominated); Best Visual Effects (nominated)
- Saturn Awards 2002: Best Science Fiction Film (won)

## If you liked this

- *After Yang* (2021): A quieter account of artificial companionship, grief and the obligations of affection
- *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: For another child’s view of an adult world that offers little reassurance — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md)
- *Edward Scissorhands* (1990), Fi1m 83: Another manufactured innocent discovers how quickly human affection acquires conditions and limits — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/edward-scissorhands.md)
- *The Tale of the Princess Kaguya* (2013), Fi1m 84: For another child whose longing is made painful by the adults around her — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya.md)
- *Never Let Me Go* (2010), Fi1m 73: Created lives expose the cruelty of deciding whose feelings deserve to count — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/never-let-me-go.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence