Movie Review: ‘AfrAId’

NEW YORK (OSV News) — That artificial intelligence programs are only as effective as the information fed into them — and that they will eventually replace humans in performing repetitive tasks — is by now well known.

The less-than-compelling psychological thriller “AfrAId” (Columbia) takes the rise of this phenomenon as its premise but then speculates on its possible downside. Central to its plot is a glowing heap of circuitry, AIA (voiced by Havana Rose Liu and pronounced “Aya”), ostensibly designed to make daily life around the home easier for its owners.

AIA is not only capable of experiencing deep empathy and able to dispense just the right advice in any situation, it also wants to attain the happy ideal of human existence. Equipped with a brain powered by a quantum computer, AIA, like the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz,” seeks to use its mental powers to “unravel every riddle for any individ’l In trouble or in pain.”

Brilliant, ambitious engineer Curtis (John Cho) is given AIA so he can evaluate its effectiveness via its use by his family: wife Meredith (Katherine Waterston), teen daughter Iris (Lukita Maxwell), middle schooler Preston (Wyatt Lindner) and seven-year-old Cal (Isaac Bae).
With the help of little blue “eyes” attached to every available wall, AIA soon knows all.

Meredith aims to return to a career, Iris is dealing with the betrayal of a boyfriend to whom she sent a nude selfie and Preston is negotiating basic social interactions. As for sweet little Cal, he mostly wants AIA to tell him stories.

Writer-director Chris Weitz never quite decides whether he’d like AIA to be as comforting as Mrs. Doubtfire or a mechanical menace storing information away for malign future action. Embedded in the storyline, however, is a cogent moral sense.

Thus Weitz occasionally suggests that, because we all have our noses stuck in our cell phones and iPads all day, we’re brimful of information. Yet, for the very same reason, we’re acutely lonely and yearning for connection.

Beyond that valid observation, though, Weitz’s wavering narrative stance hobbles his production’s obvious good intentions. As a result, audiences are unlikely to be much frightened by “AfrAId.”

The film contains mature themes, a fatal car crash, a few profanities and fleeting rough language. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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