Movie Review: SURROGATES

Over the main title credits of Surrogates, the audience is given a brief history of the robots which serve as a proxy for humans. Initially used to fight wars, they are gradually introduced into the mainstream, allowing humans to stay indoors, isolated from true contact with other people and live their lives by plugging into a worldwide grid. The idea is quite simple: a surrogate can do anything the user can think of. Running, jumping, climbing, sex...nothing is beyond them and everything is completely harmless to the human user. That is, until the son of the surrogates inventor dies in an apparent homicide. FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) investigates the case, leading him on a bizarre journey which may very well seal the end of robot use.

Surrogates is the second movie this month to postulate a future where a human controls either another person or a robot through advancement in internet technology. What makes Surrogates different from the vile Gamer is this film has a sense of morality, a larger story it's trying to tell while being "super cool" and "hip." See, from the get go, there is a sub-section of humanity who wants nothing to do with the robots in order to preserve our social interactions and way of life. That in itself already makes this film smarter than the Gerard Butler actioner. But the deep thinking doesn't stop there. Rather, the entire reason this movie exists is because of morality, because people think and rethink their actions, eventually doing whatever they can to change them.

Anytime a film tries to say something useful to the audience, it is a step in the right direction. But when a production can make that message timely, engrossing and compelling, there's something else at work. The script by Michael Ferris and John Brancato (based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele) starts out as a straight forward "who dun it" and slowly but surely escalates into an allegory for the world's current use of the internet. Sitting behind computer screens is analogous to not interacting with people on a physical level. When we don't feel pain or see the other person, we feel like we can do anything to anyone at anytime with no repercussions. And that's exactly what happens here. The question then becomes who's on the other side of the screen, or surrogate in this case.

Surrogates moves a lot of pieces on a rather large board, switching between surrogate interaction, the humans behind the robots and the Dreads with remarkable ease. The fact it all makes complete sense at every step of the way is a testament not only to the streamlined script but also to director Jonathan Mostow. Think about it: when there are two versions of almost every character in the story, seeing Willis as human Greer and surrogate Greer can become utterly confusing. Now multiply that by ten or so, including humans who use surrogates with different appearances. And throw all that into the mystery genre where the idea is to keep the main character and audience off balance. Yes, the story could have become convoluted beyond all recognition. (This aspect comes into play in the finale; maybe the writers understood how the back and forth might look to an audience?)

With the exception of a highly questionable blonde comb over for the Greer surrogate, each actor playing a robot-outside of one-is exacting in their performances. Totally devoid of emotion, stiff and, well, robotic, as the parts demand. From start to finish, the audience easily buys into the idea the surrogates aren't human. The only time this comes into question is during two action sequences with various characters unnaturally scaling walls and cars, among other objects. And, truth be told, these are two rare instances of effects overshadowing the movie proper.

All that being said, the movie isn't perfect. A lot of the story deals with a secret weapon which kills surrogates and their users, not to mention the Dread culture, their leader (The Prophet) and the one man behind everything. While it is easy to extrapolate motivations and rationale, the movie never actually connects the dots in any meaningful way. Without giving away the ending, this is a case of someone trying to rationalize the ends justifying the means. In some weird way, when all the information is laid out, it makes a certain kind of sense for the story to climax the way it does.

The biggest question, at least in my mind going into the film, was Willis. Could he convincingly play one role, let alone two, with neither being named John McClane? The answer is yes. Both versions of Greer are somber, goal driven characters. In essence, the surrogate is Greer, only with a more youthful appearance. His scenes as a human, especially his first time in public without a surrogate and a final, emotional scene with his wife, create a well-rounded personality. When he embraces wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike), who has finally allowed herself to feel a terrible loss, we need no words to understand what is going on. It's poetic in a sense and, in the end, what the entire movie revolve around: people interacting with people, no matter the cost.