CinemaNerdz

Movie Review: Ex Machina

Patrick Dunn

Ex Machina may not be quite as profound an “ideas” movie as writer-director Alex Garland thinks it is, but I’m willing to cut it some slack for at least taking the shot. Garland’s film is intimate and intensely character-driven, with essentially only three main characters bouncing off each other in a very confined space. The film raises some interesting questions about human emotion, our desire to control it and what happens when we get that control. But most importantly it’s a science-fiction movie, given a wide Ex Machinarelease and starring some notable actors. It’s refreshing to see a mainstream sci-fi flick that doesn’t follow Hollywood’s Star Wars-on-crack approach, throwing as much money as possible at creating as many explosions and spaceships and eye-popping creatures as possible. For that reason it’s easier to forgive Ex Machina’s shortcomings and celebrate its many strengths.

The film follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a young programmer at the Google-esque fictional tech company BlueBook, who wins an office lottery to spend a week with BlueBook head Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan’s domicile redefines the word “secluded” – Caleb is flown out onto Nathan’s expansive property in a helicopter and then instructed to hike the rest of the way in. Nathan, a big fan of drinking and an even bigger fan of compensatory workouts, insists upon a laid-back friendship with Caleb. He reveals that he’s brought Caleb in to perform a version of the famous Turing Test, assessing the human emotional capacity of Ava (Alicia Vikander), an android Nathan has created. But as Ava turns out to be even more strikingly human than Caleb expected, the scope of Nathan’s megalomaniacal ambition comes slowly to light.

On paper, this whole concept lives or dies on the strength of the actors cast and how well they’re directed. Fortunately, there’s nothing to worry about in either department here. Although Gleeson has the least colorful of the three main roles, he perfectly portrays Caleb’s essential innocence and his slow grapple with the moral dilemmas Nathan’s assignment presents. Vikander is a wonderful otherworldly presence in early scenes in which all but her face is rendered as sleek CGI machinery, later portraying Ava’s fierce, developing intelligence with an occasionally terrifying calm. Isaac, one of the best young character actors in the business, is the crown jewel of the cast, imbuing Nathan with an assertiveness that’s irresistible despite the character’s unsavory, manipulative nature. Garland cannily builds tension among the trio, creating an unsettling sense of oncoming horror. The mood is neatly accented by the way Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy dwarf the cast in the eerily lit hallways and cavernous rooms of Nathan’s antiseptic high-tech compound.

Ex Machina’s main fault is the sense of a depth reached for but not quite attained. The film brings up some big philosophical issues but the answers, such as it has to offer, aren’t particularly earth-shattering. There’s a nice twist in the third act that plays out with a finely paced, sickening slowness, but the denouement that follows is dragged out in a way that suggests something similarly shocking while never really paying off that expectation. With its literary and historical references, Ex Machina plays dress-up in professor’s clothes and can’t quite pull off the act in the end. But if you can compensate slightly for the expectations the film creates for itself, you still have a compellingly acted and effectively staged sci-fi with memorable characters, interesting ideas and artfully crafted mood. I’ll take it.

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Patrick Dunn

Patrick Dunn is an Ann Arbor-based professional freelance writer. His work appears regularly in the Detroit News, the Ann Arbor Observer, Hour Detroit, Metromode and My Ford Magazine. He is the senior writer at the Washtenaw County-focused online development magazine Concentrate. He appears every Friday morning at 8:40 a.m. to discuss metro-area goings-on, movies and more on Martin Bandyke's morning show on 107.1 FM in Ann Arbor.

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